


Fire Emblem: The Guardian House

by logicneverworks



Category: Destiny (Video Games), Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:41:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 45,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29015301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/logicneverworks/pseuds/logicneverworks
Summary: When a seemingly easy investigation goes awry, Fireteam Noctis find themselves in a new world. One without the Traveler or the Pyramids, but the forces of Light and Dark exist all the same. Can Fireteam Noctis stop what happened to their world before it happens to this one? (I own neither Destiny nor Fire Emblem).
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Shamir Nevrand
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

"Goddamit, I can't see anything in this blizzard!"

A titan, armored in Moonfang and Legacy Oath gear, groaned in frustration as he made his way through the storm. He's an Exo, Lus-3, exploring the very moon his kind was made on. Behind him are two more guardians, one a Warlock, the other a hunter. Together, they make up Fireteam Noctis. The Warlock, Jose-5, is donned in full Channeling gear. The Hunter, Moa Kaa, is wearing the shadow armor given to her by Calus. Lus' ghost, Cinnamon, gives his guardian reprieve by confirming that they've arrived at their target location.

"Well, this is where that Vex signal was coming from." The Neon Helix shelled ghost whizzed around, scanning his surroundings. "The problem is, I don't know what was causing it."

At the current moment, they were in the Nexus, the entrance to the Glassway. Ever since Eramis opened the massive Vex portal, frequent incursions had been occurring. Fireteam Noctis quickly crushed the incoming Vex every time they came through. Moa sighed as she facepalmed.

"Cinnamon, you sure it's not just another incursion?"

If Cinnamon could shake his head, he would. Instead, he merely slightly swayed from side to side.

"Well, it probably is, but that's not the point. Normally I can pick up on massive amounts of Vex coming through to Europa and towards us, but this time it's like they're just stopping here before going somewhere else."

Jose-5 chuckled as he holstered his Telesto and folded his arms. "What, like a layover flight?"

"Yes! Exactly!"

"Oh...I mean, I was joking but okay."

Lus-3 leaned against a cave wall and folded his arms as well. "Cinnamon, do you know where to?"

"Not at all. Any attempt at a scan results in a blank."

"So the only way to find out is if we go in ourselves?"

"Maybe. Well, probably-yes that's the only way."

Jose uncrossed his arms and began to make his way to the Glassway. "Well, can't be that bad right?" He unholstered his Telesto and reloaded it. Jose's ghost, Chopstick, materialized, and floated around Jose's head.

"C'mon, it'll be quick! We just go in, see where it's leading, commit mass murder of vex, then leave!" Chopstick finished as he continued to whirr around Jose's helmet.

Moa groaned as the Kill Tracker ghost finished his sentence.

"Chopstick, the last time you said it would be quick, I ended up getting skewered and thrown off a colony ship by a Captain."

"But that was quick was it not?" Jose smirked underneath his helmet, supporting his ghost's proposal.

Moa's ghost now appeared on her shoulder.

"Whether or not we want to do it, I don't think we should afford the Vex the luxury of converting yet another world into a machine. And it's not like we can have Osiris tell us what's going on, now that he...lost Sagira"

Moa stared daggers at her ghost. "Why do you always have to be right Hornet?"

"I'm just doing my job." the Rimed shell snarkily returned as she dematerialized back to her Guardian.

Moa unholstered her Seventh Seraph Carbine. "Well, at least I'll probably get some cool loot."

* * *

Meanwhile, in another dimension, a certain professor was getting ready for a mock battle between three parties. His name is Byleth, a former mercenary turned instructor at Garreg-Mach Academy. He teaches the Blue Lion house, led by the prince of Faerghus, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd. Dimitri approaches the professor, on his way towards the battlefield.

"Ah, it's finally time for the mock battle. I'm eager to put my skills to use. And you professor?"

Byleth nods, about as much emotion as he ever shows.

"I'm looking forward to it."

"Excellent. I have high expectations for your command. Our opponents are mighty, that is certain. But I'm positive that we can win."

"Hey! Are you two talking about strategy? Thanks for the invite!"

The heir to the throne of the Leicester Alliance, Claude von Riegan approaches the prince and the professor. Behind him follows the princess of Adrestia, Edelgard von Hresvelg.

"Oh not to worry Claude, I've no intention of letting you two know about our strategies." Dimitri chips back at Claude.

Edelgard smirks and rests her hand on her hip. "I'm not worried either. No matter what tactics you use, the best you two can hope for is second place."

Dimitri heartily laughs. "We'll see about that Edelgard."

On the battlefield, the three houses were geared up for an amicable battle. As they all shuffled into positions, Dimitri further placed his hopes on Byleth.

"Looks like it's finally starting. Our fate is in your hands Professor. Do not let us down."

Byleth simply nodded.

The former leader of the Knights of Seiros, Jeralt, began the commencement of the mock battle.

"I'm sure you all know this, but the house that defeats the other two is declared the winner. I'll be overseeing this match. Now then, let the mock bat-"

Jeralt paused as a falling object, caught his sight in his peripheral vision. Looking at it clearer now, it appeared to be three objects. Focusing his vision, he could see it even clearer.

Are those...people?


	2. Chapter 2

"That's another Wyvern down! You two owe me 10,000 Glimmer."

Moa laughed as she stood on top of a Wyvern carcass. Underneath her helmet, she was wearing the widest grin possible. Lus-3 raises his hands in confusion at the fact that they now owe Moa such a high price.

"What? We agreed on 5,000 to whoever killed the most Wyverns!"

Hornet appeared hovering over Moa's shoulder. "We did, but we also agreed to another 5,000 to whoever dies the least. And last time I checked, my guardian hasn't died yet, while you two have."

Lus clenched his fists tight before pointing at Hornet and Moa. "Whatever, this isn't over yet. I'm sure there's plenty more Wyverns on the other side of that gate."

Jose-5 simply sighed while reloading his Telesto. "She says she doesn't wanna investigate, but now she's making it a game. Of course."

Moa continued to chuckle at her comrades' dismay. "Wow, seeing you two this salty reminds me of the time when I found this bad boy." she states while brandishing the Whisper of the Worm, a new vessel for the worm god Xol. Jose crosses his arms and stares hard enough to kill at Moa.

"First of all, that was MINE."

Moa holsters the Whisper before putting her hands on her hips. "Oh really? Then why don't you have it?"

"Because I got blasted off by a taken centurion!"

Lus tilted his head and smirked underneath his helmet. "Phalanx actually-"

"Oh shut up you tangerine robot!" Jose retorted while shaking his head sassily.

"Below the belt Jose." Lus said while Moa failed to stifle a laughter. Lus then turned to look at the massive Vex gate while pumping his Heritage shotgun. "Anyways, Cinnamon, is this what we're headed through?" Cinnamon appeared before turning to look at all three Guardians.

"Yes it is. Even when we're closer, I still can't get a read on where it's leading to…" Cinnamon trailed off. The Guardians had arrived at the Glassway, the place where Clovis, and Eramis, intended to use Radiolaria in order to create Exos. Behind the fireteam, several Vex corpses littered the ground. In front of them awaited a massive Vex gate, but this time the Hydras did not come through. It only awaited the fireteam, active.

"Didn't it lead to the Vex homeworld? I thought Elsie told us from Clovis' notes."

"Well yes, but even then I could get some sort of information on it. This time it's coming up empty. It scares me a little."

"You're so scared all the time it's actually pretty cute. I'm honestly surprised you're even still Lus' ghost. He's such a frontline fighter that you two are almost always in danger. " Moa said while taking Whisper off her back.

"It's because of Lus' massive shoulder pauldrons. They're essentially a mini bunker." Jose said in the most matter-of-factly way.

"Okay come on, I know my last set of armor was huge, but these ones aren't even that big! They look pretty nice in fact." Lus tried to explain while gesturing to his Legacy Oath gauntlets. Lus sighed before turning to head towards the gate. "Whatever, let's just hurry through." Lus muttered while beginning to walk to the gate.

As the three guardians stood before the gate, Moa smirked and turned to look at her fellow fireteam members.

"How about we double the amount of glimmer for the first person to die?"

Cinnamon appeared, staring at Fireteam Noctis."We are going to an unknown place, which may very well be heavily corrupted with darkness, please take this seriously." Hornet appeared and expressed her apprehension for the situation as well. "Y'know for once, I agree with the scaredy-cat. We need to be on our-"

"You're on." Chopstick and Jose said in unison.

"Geronimo!" Moa shouted ecstatic while rushing through the portal

"Last one in's a loser!" Jose jeered at Lus before doing the same. Cinnamon sighed before disappearing into Lus. Lus gave Cinnamon a comfortable grin under his helmet.

"Let them have their fun, I'll just steal their kills anyway." He then walked through the gate.

Once on the other side, Lus saw a blue sky. Then he began falling. As the titan spun and tried to upright himself, he spotted his teammates several hundred meters below him. Putting his arms at his side, he dived towards them. As he reached them, he saw Jose in an oddly relaxed state, despite the situation, with his hands behind his head, almost as if he was reclining on a couch. Moa however was having a less than relaxing time, screaming as she fell towards the ever-approaching ground. Jose turned to look at Lus.

"So glad you could join us!" He chuckles over comms, the roar and howl of wind being enough to drown out any sounds otherwise.

"Cinnamon, do you know where we are? It kinda looks like Earth." Lus stated while somehow moving his head enough to observe his surroundings.

"That's what I thought too, but I'm not picking up any signs of the Traveler, the City, or even the shard!" Cinnamon explained while scanning the newfound land even further. Hornet and Chopstick agree over comms that they are receiving the same result as well. All the while Moa realizes how close the ground is, as if remembering something she forgot at home.

"Oh shoot! I'm gonna die!" She panics, spreading out her body in order to slow herself enough to meet Lus and Jose. Lus' body begins to crackle with arc energy

"Well, I'm not dying." He smugly says before flying like a missile towards the ground, leaving a trail of lightning behind him. Moa then turns to look at Jose, mentally realizing that she has no way to cushion her fall. She then grabs Jose's arm and pulls him below her, before kicking him away.

"You bit-!" He yells, attempting to summon fiery wings at his back, desperately trying to save himself before he hits the ground. Unfortunately for the Warlock, it was a moment too late. Satisfied, the Hunter resigns herself to her temporary fate. On the ground, Lus stands up from the heavy impact he made, as Cinnamon appears over his right shoulder. In front of his vision, two falling bodies created two deep indentations in the ground, not far from each other.

"Haha, Guardians down." Lus says smugly.

As Chopstick and Hornet materialize to reconstruct their Guardians, Cinnamon repeats a scan of the area. At the moment, they are in a dense forest, cluttered with coniferous trees. The only indication of direction is the craters the bodies of Jose and Moa left. As Moa stood up, she turned to look at Jose.

"Looks like someone owes me 20,000 Glimmer." Moa said, smirking at her newly constructed comrade.

"This isn't over!" He quickly jabs back, dusting himself off. "Now, where the hell are we?"

"Well…" Hornet starts, hovering around observing the forest that fully surrounds the fireteam. "it looks like Earth. But as Cinn stated it's not the Earth we know of. However, I am picking lifeforms that at least appear to be Human."

"So we're on Earth?" Jose questions, holding his Fusion Rifle.

"It seems to be that way, at least." Hornet answers, returning to Moa. Lus grabs his shotgun off his back, holding it by its handle in one hand.

"Any update on where the Vex are? If those Humans aren't Guardians, they're gonna have a really rough time against those death machines." Lus asks, attempting to look above and through the trees. For a moment, he could've sworn he saw a giant castle.

"There are traces of Vex energy here. But luckily I'm not detecting any actual Vex at the moment."

"Well, that's comforting, at least. Now then, shall we go to meet these Humans?" Lus stated, hopping on his nonexistent sparrow before faceplanting into the ground. Shamefully standing up he turns to Cinnamon. "Cinn, can you summon my sparrow please?" Cinnamon turned to look Lus in the optics.

"I'm trying to, but I don't have access to the transmat network, nor our ship."

"Soooo…" Jose started. "We have to walk? And we're stranded here? And no gear?"

"Most likely, I haven't been able to find our ships on any scans. So we have to get back by using a Vex gate I'm guessing."

"Well," Lus smirked as he put his hand on Jose's shoulder. "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." He states as he begins to walk towards the marker Cinnamon gave him.

"Yeah, but not all of us have Dunemarchers on." Jose jabbed as he narrowed his eyes at his fellow Exo. Sighing, he began to trudge on after Moa and Jose.

* * *

"Is something the matter Jeralt?" A green-haired man in royal blue vestments questioned as he approached the former leader of the Knights, who was wearing a rarely seen dumbfounded look.

"I must be getting old…I thought I saw people falling from the sky, but, they're not there anymore." Jeralt said shaking his head while holding it.

"By the Goddess! You don't think they're Wyvern riders that fell off do you?" Seteth questioned, in a shocked state of anxiousness.

"I'm sure it's nothing Seteth. Was probably some birds and my old eyes are just playing tricks on me. Anyways…" Jeralt clears his throat. "Now then, let the mock battle...BEGIN!"

(Author's Note: For atmosphere, you can play Fodlan Winds in the background while reading.)

As the last syllable of Jeralt's words was spoken, the three houses all began to shift into various formations. Members of a house with yellow colors, the Golden Deer, began to advance, particularly one with purple hair.

"We don't need your underhanded tactics here, Claude. I shall handily dispose of the opposition, alongside Ignatz." The purple-haired noble confidently spoke. His classmate next to him, wearing glasses and green-yellow hair became startled.

"What? I'm not ready yet!" The student now known as Ignatz panicked.

"Don't underestimate the new professor, Lorenz. I've seen him fight firsthand, and he is a force to be reckoned with." The leader of the house, Claude, gave Lorenz a knowing look before he turned his focus to the battlefield. Meanwhile, on another side of the field, the Black Eagle house was being instructed and advised by its leader, Edelgard.

"Dorothea, can you head towards the front lines? I want to draw them in and subsequently crush them." She asked of her brunette classmate. Dorothea gave Edelgard a wide grin before agreeing.

"Leave it to me, Edie!" She said, moving forward to meet the opposition. Edelgard then turned to her classmate with orange hair and her retainer.

"Ferdinand, Hubert, I want you to destroy the enemy if they come near."

"We got it! Although I don't really need a partner on this mission." Ferdinand stated, glaring at his mysterious brooding black-haired classmate. Hubert scoffed.

"Clearly not, otherwise she would've just asked you to do it."

As the two boys moved to their position, Byleth was engaging in combat with Lorenz who was armed with a wooden spear. He strafed to the side, parrying a thrust from Lorenz's spear using his wooden sword before sweeping Lorenz's legs and pressing the wooden blade to his neck. Lorenz's face shifted to one of frustration and disgust, tasting the bitterness and blandness of mud while simultaneously smelling its manure-like stench. He gets up, confused, and stunned at his humiliation.

"What? I lost? Impossible!" Having been defeated, he trudges to the sideline, skulking in his defeat. Claude, having been surprised by this, smirked at the teacher. He was going to have to take this seriously after all.

Dimitri had begun to advance behind Byleth, being met by Ignatz. The spectacled boy attempts to keep his distance by shooting arrows at the prince, but Dimitri easily outmaneuvers them. Once in range of Dimitri's spear, Ignatz gets lightly poked before being pushed to the ground with a solid thud. Quickly, Dimitri apologizes and offers Ignatz a hand.

"Nice try Ignatz, but your shots were a little slow today. Don't give up though! I'm sure you'll be a great archer." Dimitri brightly smiles as he commends the young teen.

"Oh-Uhh thanks, your highness! I'll get out of your way now!" Ignatz quickly says, rushing off the battlefield

To the right flank of the Blue Lions approached Dorothea, with Hubert and Ferdinand not too far behind her. A blonde-haired girl, armed with a spear, rushes to meet them. Dorothea frowns, this is quite possibly the one person she didn't want to fight.

"I'm sorry Ingrid, this is nothing personal. But I have to do it!" Dorothea grunts as she releases a light blast of magic towards Ingrid. The blonde-haired student almost fully dodges the attack, but some of the magic clips her left shoulder, causing her to stumble back a bit. Seeing an opportunity, Hubert rushes in and releases another blast of magic, this one powerful enough to launch Ingrid off her feet and into the grass below, on her side. Dorothea glares at Hubert before admonishing him.

"Hubert! This is a mock battle! Be careful!" Dorothea tells off the shadowy student before rushing to help Ingrid up. "I'm so sorry Ingrid! Are you okay? Do you need to go to the infirmary?" Dorothea questions, gently helping the girl to her feet.

"I'm fine, thank you, Dorothea. I just need to be more alert next time." Ingrid assures her brunette guardian helping her to her feet. Behind the two girls, an Indigo haired student of the Blue Lions with an updo lunged at Hubert, who narrowly avoided the attack by stepping back. As the assailant continued to pressure Hubert, Hubert took another large step back before preparing to blast the Indigo haired student with magic. Before the blast was released, the Indigo swordsman rolled towards Hubert and grabbed a fistful of uniform before bringing him to the ground, subsequently bringing his sword to Hubert's neck. Hubert frustratedly sighs before surrendering, which causes the swordsman to relent and get off of Hubert. The swordsman returns to the rest of the Blue Lions, where a student with an unbuttoned uniform and unruly red hair welcomes him back.

"Nice one Felix! Looks like I'll have to step up my game as well!" The red-haired student chuckled as he commended his classmate. The swordsman now known as Felix doesn't even turn to look at the redhead before moving past him.

"Focus on the battle Sylvain." Felix grunts before running to meet his next opponent. Sylvain brushes his hair back before chuckling once again.

"Not even a thank you from him. Typical." Sylvain grips his spear before following right behind Felix.

* * *

As the sounds of battle grew louder and more hectic, Fireteam Noctis drew nearer to the human signals they picked up. Jose had already grown tired of walking and was begrudgingly carrying on, barely keeping up with his two teammates.

"Ughh….How much farther do we have to go?" Jose questioned basically slouching at this point. Cinnamon appeared over Lus' shoulder and flew over to meet Jose.

"Luckily not much farther. In fact…" Cinnamon trailed off as he moved to the front of the group and stared at a clearing in the trees "We should be able to see them from right here! And-" Cinnamon paused while looking through the clearing.

"And what?" Moa asked, patiently awaiting Cinnamon's answer.

"Is that a monastery?"

Lus, Jose, and Moa all pause in confusion before heading through the clearing. Sure enough, in the distance over a few hills, stood a massive monastery. What may have been more interesting though is that below them, a battle was occurring. Not one with guns or tanks like they were used to, but one with wooden weapons, like swords, spears, and bows. Lus confused turns to his ghost and began to search for answers.

"Cinn, what am I looking at?"

"Well... it appears to be a far pre-Golden Age battle..." Cinnamon observed. Before he could say the rest of his thoughts, Jose interrupted.

"So we time traveled? Well, actually, that's to be expected of the Vex I guess." Jose shrugs. Moa points down at an individual who looks to be shooting out a blast of void energy.

"I'm not a Warlock, and I'm pretty bad at history, but I don't think they had void energy or weapons in the middle ages."

"Correct. There are no recorded instances of Void, Arc, or Solar energy being used before the Golden Age." Hornet appears over Moa and confirms.

Jose grabs his helmet and scratches it with both hands.

"Then when...or...where the hell are we?"

Cinnamon turns to look at the fireteam and floats around.

"Well, I think, and this is just a theory, that we are in a different dimension, or maybe even universe, entirely. It's just a theory though! I don't know." Lus laughs and shrugs, seemingly in an attempt to comfort the sheepish ghost.

"Easy Cinnamon, it's alright, I believe you. Honestly, with some of the things we've been through, that's not that farfetched." Lus walks closer to the cliffside, but far away enough from the edge to remain hidden from those below. "Our next question to answer is, what do the Vex want here?" Suddenly, Hornet's voice frantically came over comms.

"Looks like we're about to find out! I'm picking up Vex signatures surrounding the battlefield, far more than enough to completely annihilate those on the battlefield!"

"Shit! Already?! Let's move!" Lus commanded as he began to run down towards the battlefield. His teammates unholstered their weapons and followed close behind him.

On the battlefield below, two top students fought for the glory, bragging rights, and a feast, for their house. Dimitri stabbed his spear forward, hoping to stun Edelgard for even a moment. Edelgard however telegraphed Dimitri's move before he even started, handily stepping out of the way and moving in for a small swing with her wooden ax. Dimitri was able to lean back, the dull blade of the ax nearly hitting his right side. Dimitri took a further step back and began to rethink his approach in order to defeat Edelgard. Edelgard, underneath her sweat and labored breathing, began to smirk.

"Come on Dimitri...we both know you stand no chance...of defeating the Black Eagles..."

Dimitri began to circle Edelgard. He began to smirk himself. "Oh really? Is that why there's only three of you left?"

Edelgard's smirk now shifted to a small scowl. "It's not like the Blue Lions are fairing any better!"

Just as they were about to lunge at each other, Claude dropped down from a tree nearby, facing both of them.

"Well well well… what do we have here? Lovers' quarrel?" Claude stated as he wore the most mischievous grin possible.

"Claude, you're here, perfect. Now I can take down both house leaders in one fell swoop." Edelgard confidently said while readying her ax. Claude put his hand to his chest and fabricated a shocked expression.

"Ouch Lady Edelgard, I'm hurt that you think I would go down that easily. For the record, I hate los…" Claude trailed off as he began to look over Edelgard's shoulder and into the forest. "Edelgard, there's something behind you!" Claude shouted as he readied his bow, aiming at whatever the new party was. Edelgard however simply scoffed.

"Claude, if you really thought I would fall for one of your underhanded tricks again, you must be a fool." She retorts, beginning to change her target to Claude. However, Dimitri saw what caught Claude's attention. At first, he saw a red light. Then three. Then more. It was almost as if a flood of red was marching towards them. He then saw a purple orb, arcing through the air as it made its way towards the trio. It didn't take him long to realize that the orb's target was Edelgard. He then ran towards Edelgard and tackled her out of the way of the orb. Not a moment later, the purple orb collides with the soil and scorches all the grass around it. Dimitri and Claude gawked at the aftermath in shock and horror, realizing that Edelgard would most likely be fatally injured if it had met its mark. Edelgard however, still focused on the battle, struggled and pushed Dimitri off of her.

"To think that the two of you would team up against me. I should've expected no less." She retaliates, rolling away from the two house leaders still staring at the ground. Dimitri looks at Edelgard while pointing at the ground to prove Claude's truthfulness.

"No Edelgard, look! Whatever left that was heading straight for you!" Dimitri pleaded while getting up himself. Edelgard cautiously lowered her ax while moving to look where the two boys were pointing out. Finally, she saw what they were so shocked about. A massive dent of scorched grass, along with some form of purple residue remained on the ground.

"Oh…" She trailed off, falling to the same spell of shock that Claude and Dimitri were under. As the three of them turned to the forest to see who had sent such a powerful spell, they saw a sea of red. As the waves came close to the light, they observed an army of brass soldiers marching towards them. Most of them had a white abdomen and fan-shaped heads. Some had a purple aura around them, and stood significantly taller than the rest, while some others had thinner heads with protrusions that looked similar to antlers. A small amount of them were levitating, with an almost triangular body. There were even a few massive ones, with what looked to be blue frills coming out their sides. They let out inhuman roars and sounds. The ground seemed to shake with every step they took.

The three house leaders loosened the grip on their weapons out of shock. Claude started nervously taking steps back. Edelgard began to feel the heavy weight of fear weigh down on her shoulders. Dimitri's face ran white as he continued to stare at the encroaching army.

"W-what are those?"


	3. Chapter 3

(Author's note: for atmosphere, I suggest going to the Fire Emblem: The Guardian House playlist on youtube.)

"Felix...what is that?"

Sylvain looked at his cold comrade, who was wearing the same expression of fear that he was. Behind them, several students could be heard screaming as brass creatures enclosed the battlefield. Red bolts of energy collided with a student, burning straight through his clothes and directly onto his side. The student clutched his rib in pain, feeling burnt flesh and blood, screaming as he fell to the ground. On the cliff overlooking the battlefield, Seteth, Jeralt, and a green-haired woman were in a stupor observing the soon to be massacre on the battlefield. Quickly, the woman turns to Seteth and Jeralt.

"Seteth, we need to return to the Monastery and assemble the Knights at once! Jeralt, do what you can to protect the students!"

"Right away Lady Rhea!" Seteth shouts as he and Lady Rhea mounted a horse and rode back to the monastery, flanked by several Knights of Seiros. Simultaneously, Jeralt mounted his horse and began to ride down to meet the new threat, armed with just a sharpened spear. Riding past a few students already running for safety, he calls out as loud as he can manage.

"Everyone fall back! This is not a drill! Do not fight the enemy! Anyone who can, heal the wounded!" As he went deeper into the chaos, the shouts and screams of students grew louder. He caught glimpses of students helping wounded walk, some carrying students on piggyback, and even some hiding from the encroaching army, all of whom he directed back to the temporary haven. He continued to ride on, seeing more and more of the soldiers pour out of the trees and press on towards the Monastery. He continued to ride through the trees until a flurry of red bolts scorched the side of his horse, causing the horse to panic and launch Jeralt off into the mud and grass below. The horse quickly ran off before Jeralt could recover and remount it.

"Dammit!" Jeralt shouted, slamming the ground. He then heard heavy footsteps coming towards him. In a single swift movement, Jeralt grabbed his spear, rolled back, and got into a battle stance, then turned to face his assailant. Jeralt saw a brass soldier with a fan-shaped head appear from behind a tree. It had a glowing center, in it was what appeared some sort of white liquid. The soldier made a cry before beginning to shoot more red bolts from a weird contraption on its arm. Jeralt rolls to the side, standing up once again before jabbing his spear forward toward the soldier. As the spear met its mark, it simply slid off the soldier's armor and flew to the side, nearly throwing Jeralt off balance. As Jeralt looks up from his failed attack, he comes face to face with a vibrant, glowing, purple palm. At the last moment, he throws all of his body weight to his left side, narrowly avoiding certain death, instead settling for a mere burn on his shoulder. Slightly wincing in pain while looking once again towards his assailant, he sees the soldier ready its weapon once again, before suddenly a flash of red follows a blade nearly completely cutting through the soldier's side. The glow in both its eye and core go out, as it falls to the ground after its killer put its foot on its side and tore their blade from it. With a hefty thud and clang of metal, it fell to the ground, lifeless. Behind where it stood, was the hero Thunder Catherine who approached Jeralt and offered him a hand.

"You okay?" Catherine asks as Jeralt took her hand and used it to stand up.

"I'm okay, but how are the students doing?" Jeralt asks, wearing a concerned look on his face.

"Well thanks to your kid, they seem to be doing alright at the moment. Manuela and Hanneman are helping any of the wounded." Catherine said with confidence, nearly smirking. Before she can, however, two more soldiers appear, this time one with horns, and a larger one with a purple aura around it. "Well, looks like our break's over!" The hero of thunder shouts before rushing to meet the new threat.

On the same battlefield, Dimitri, Claude, and Edelgard were all running for safety. The pursuers behind them marching, all unleashing a torrent of red and purple bolts that incinerated the forest around them. As the trio rounded a corner and dipped behind a large boulder, an indigo-haired archer rolled past them and shot an arrow at one of the soldier's eye. The arrow darted through the air, straight into the glowing red orb of the metallic soldier. Although the glow seemed to go out from the eye, It did not even recoil as it continued to march toward the house leaders and the archer at the same speed, perhaps even faster. The archer quickly turned towards the trio and ordered them to run to the haven, before nocking another arrow and firing it, this one aimed straight for its core. Once again, the arrow finds its target, and once again the soldier keeps marching. However this time it had lurched forward from the impact, albeit briefly and subtly. The indigonette nocked yet another arrow and shot it to the soldier's core. Immediately after she nocked another arrow and shot it.

Another one.

Another hit.

Another pull of the bowstring.

Another arrow flying through the air.

Finally, after at least a dozen arrows had been protruding from its core did the soldier finally fall to the ground, lifeless. However, the army behind it pressed on, and in the fallen soldier's place, another moved forward in the formation and pushed on towards the archer, this one firing several bolts at the archer. The archer quickly maneuvers out of the way of the majority of the bolts, but not before a few of them meet their mark and blaze her flesh in her left thigh. Hiding behind a bush, she winces in pain for a brief moment before gritting her teeth and rushing for the aid of her allies.

* * *

Deep in the forest, chaos was heard as Fireteam Noctis shredded through wave after wave of Vex, desperately trying to reach the Humans before it's too late.

A low growl can be heard from Lus-3's weapon of choice, The Lament, as he easily rips through a foolish minotaur that attempted to battle a Titan in its court, close range. Its carcass is in three pieces scattered about as it falls. He then turns to face a Wyvern rushing him, raising The Lament to rip through its next victim. Lus jumps and spins to cut through the Wyvern's armor. The Wyvern is cleaved in half, its body falling into pieces on the floor as well.

On Lus' right flank, Jose's floating through the air, launching a giant Nova Bomb to the Vex below him, all of which disintegrating in a purply wisp. As he falls to the ground, a Wyvern rises and levitates to gravity slam him. Jose swiftly aims and fires off a burst of Telesto bolts before tossing a grenade, all of which attach to the Wyvern and detonate before it can hit the ground, causing it too to be disintegrated and creating a destructive show of the power of a Warlock.

Behind him, Moa unleashes an unyielding deluge of bullets from her golden gun mowing down Goblin, Hobgoblin, and Harpy alike as she strafes and displays moves truly fitting of a Hunter. She then throws her knife at an encroaching Harpy, immediately exploding on impact. She whips out her carbine and unloads it into a nearby headless Goblin, before reloading and unloading into another Goblin behind it.

After complete annihilation of Vex in their immediate area, they don't stop. Instead, they push onwards toward the field where the Humans were. Rising to meet them, another wave of Vex changes direction to the Guardians. This time, a Hydra, alongside two Minotaurs and Wyverns.

Lus readies his chainsword and charges forward to engage the Minotaurs. He slices diagonally, taking down the Minotaur closest to him. Before the next Minotaur can land a hit, Lus reaches within himself and conjures a gauntlet of cosmic ice, using it to slam the Minotaur to the ground and crush it.

A few meters away, Jose takes to the skies once again, this time conjuring crackling lightning in his right palm. For a brief moment, the forest around him is illuminated blue by the massive beam he shoots out, evaporating the Hydra.

Moa once again summons a gun of Gold, this time firing three shots each into the two Wyverns preparing to attack Jose as he landed. The Wyverns scream as they are purged. Moa hops onto a straggler Goblin that followed them, using her knife to slice it open.

Once again, the Vex in their immediate area are demolished, and once again they press on, determined to save Humanity as they always have.

* * *

"Shamir! By the goddess, your leg!"

Catherine ran as fast as her exhausted body could over to her wounded partner. Shamir put her hand up while leaning against a tree, seemingly ignoring her festering wound on her thigh.

"I'll manage for now Catherine, we barely have enough strength to deal with this army as is." Shamir somehow cooly stated despite her chest rising and falling like a wave. Despite this, Catherine still retained a worried yet exhausted expression. Sitting against an adjacent tree, she decides to take a breather as well. Shamir then takes a look at Catherine's status, who isn't faring any better herself. She is missing entire chunks of her armor: the cloth burnt and ragged, the metal bent, shattered, and fractured. While her burns aren't nearly as bad as Shamir's, she has several of them compared to Shamir's one.

"Did you get any of them?" Catherine asks, her face changing to a slightly lighter expression. Shamir's however, remains unchanged.

"One. It took half of my arrows though. Hitting anything other than their eyes or their core flat out fails."

"Good thing I have Thunderbrand then. But even with it, I was heavily outmatched by the ones shrouded in purple. I took one down before I nearly died by another one." Catherine reveals, feeling filled with shame that despite her fabled strength she still can't defeat this threat. Shamir's eyes narrow as she surveys the background, watching as several more soldiers pour out of the forest.

"There's so many...they just keep coming…" She almost mutters. Catherine too scans the battlefield as well, hearing only the roars, groans, whines, and rhythmic marching of the soldiers.

"My question is, what even are they? As far as I can tell, they're not Human. Nor do they look like soldiers of Adrestia, Faerghus, or Leicester." Catherine mused as she began to rise to her feet, her wounds causing her visible, yet subjectively minor pain. Shamir stood up as a soldier with horn-like protrusions spotted them. She quickly nocked and fired an arrow at the soldier. However surprising her, the soldier crouches and covers itself in fire, incinerating the arrow. As the soldier stands up, and the odd contraption on its arm begins to glow, Shamir quickly rolls out of its sight, telling Catherine to do the same. While both of them are in hiding, Shamir looks to Catherine.

"Do you know where the others are?"

"Alois and Gilbert should be protecting the students wherever they are...I lost sight of Jeralt when one of the ones with a purple aura attacked me. He probably fell back to join Alois and Gilbert...hopefully..." Catherine said, peering over her shoulders to look for an opening to retreat. Catherine turned to look at her partner.

"Can you run?"

"Yeah."

"On my signal, we run as fast as we can back to the Monastery. We're heavily outmatched here as is."

A long period of silence passed as Catherine continued to survey her surroundings. Abruptly, she gripped her sword tighter and quickly shouted.

"Now!"

The two knights broke into a sprint as fast as was physically possible in their conditions. As they stepped out of the cover of the trees, what seemed like several dozens of soldiers spotted them and changed course to them, unleashing an endless onslaught of attacks and projectiles at Shamir and Catherine. Catherine is superficially struck as a meteor of Purple lands on the ground next to her, causing her to stumble and nearly fall. The two knights had no choice but to ignore the hailstorm and keep running, lest they risk being turned into a charred carcass. Finally, after what seemed like endless running, they could see the defense mounted by Jeralt, Alois, Gilbert, and the new professor. However, they were currently surrounded by an absurd amount of metallic soldiers, blocking Catherine's and Shamir's path to safety.

"Any ideas?" Shamir quickly asked Catherine as she rushed to cut a fan-headed soldier down.

"Either we die out here or we die in there! Keep going!" Catherine yelled, making a beeline for the tall shield of Gilbert.

Shamir follows behind Catherine, knowing hesitation means certain death. A trio of knights see the two approaching and push forward with their shields, buying some time for the two to make it to relative safety. Several more knights were falling back to protect the students and those who could not fight. The two of them dart quickly behind the massive shield of Gilbert. Shamir quickly spins to pester the blitz of encroaching soldiers, firing all her arrows rapidly into one's core, taking it down. Catherine managed to slay some soldiers that teleported behind their line, being assisted by other knights. However, the defensive was quickly failing, the knights were being pushed back as the metallic soldiers pushed forward. Several knights were being crippled from the red and purple magic, some meeting their end. Shieldbearers who fell had their bodies trampled by the endless march of the onslaught. Worry, fear, and exhaustion began to spread over the faces of the Knights of Seiros like a plague.

They all knew this could very well be the day Garreg-Mach falls.

Fireteam Noctis had finally arrived at the former battlefield they were overlooking before it was overrun by Vex. Instead of eager people poking at each other, some laughing and helping others up, others fighting and arguing, they saw even more Vex. As one horde turned to face them, Jose jumped and launched a massive Nova Bomb in their direction before any of them could fire. He remains in the air, summoning wings of flame as he rains down fire on his foes below. From his elevated vantage point, he saw several humans retreating towards the monastery, with a few armored and armed ones protecting them. Before he could see more, however, three hobgoblins fire a beam from their line rifles, stinging Jose. The warlock then flies over the Vex snipers, before planting his sword directly into the center of the hobgoblins incinerating them. Jose quickly charged his Telesto and fired it at an incoming horde of former Goblins, now turned into Violet wisps. Not wasting a moment, he quickly began to rush towards the blitzkrieg of Vex rushing the monastery.

"They're pinned down! We gotta hurry!" Chopstick shouted in place of Jose, who was deeply focused on destroying the Vex. As if in reply to Chopstick's frantic message, three Wyverns walked in the way of Jose. Jose rises and angrily conjures Arc energy in both hands.

"Goddamit! MOVE!" He yells as he unleashes the full fury of two Chaos Reaches in both hands, causing all three Wyverns to combust as he rapidly burns them down. Moa sneered as several rank and file Vex fell to her Huckleberry.

"What the hell? Why are there so many of them? They could've easily taken the monastery with an army a quarter of this size!"

"Doesn't matter! For now, focus on cutting through!" Lus grunted as he razed a Wyvern with his sword. "Don't stop! Keep going!"

Catherine had a look of pure horror on her face as she laid her eyes on a massive beast that resembled a totem hovered over the metallic soldiers. It appeared to have orange walls rotating around it, as well as several red eyes staring into the souls of its future victims. The beast let out an unholy roar that shook her spirit to its core. As she ordered the knights around her to retreat once again, the beast let out two purple blasts of magic, annihilating two fear-stricken knights in front of her. She briefly shut her eyes and mentally prayed for their souls to be taken to the goddess above. Catherine then turned and once again ran behind Gilbert's shield. Gilbert's face turned into a scowl as he struggled to keep his footing against the army's seismic shaking of the ground.

"If they reach the second wall, we won't be able to stop them! We need to drive them back!" Gilbert shouted as the army marched ever closer. He grit his teeth as bolts of red began to pierce his shield and thus impact his side, burning his armor and flesh. Behind him, a hail of arrows flew overhead and rained down on the onslaught, taking down a few of the smaller soldiers, but ultimately making very little impact.

"Gilbert, move!" Gilbert turned his head to see Catherine alongside several knights rolling a wagon of explosive barrels to the incoming soldiers. He sidesteps, retreating as little as possible before planting his shield once again. As the knights let go of the wagon with a final push, it began rolling towards the army. Some of the soldiers changed their target to the wagon, unleashing a hail of bolts and magic upon it. By the time the wagon had combusted, it was already in the metallic soldiers' territory. The explosion once again killed some, this time more than the Ballista storm, but once again making very little impact. The army seemed to simply walk around or even over the burning cart, as they continued to press on towards the monastery. Behind him, a throng of mages conjured a spell, hailing down ice upon the army. To add even more pressure, another rain of arrows fell upon the army as well, with another wagon rolling towards them. This combo repeated several times. Even though the several soldiers of metal that fell hardly made a dent in the numbers of the onslaught, Gilbert felt the slightest glimmer of hope.

Maybe they stood a chance after all.

Lus continued to raze through the endless Vex onslaught that plagued the field with a low growl emanating from his sword. Jose behind him was throwing out Chaos Reach after Chaos Reach, sometimes doing so in both hands. Moa continued to burn down Minotaurs and Wyverns with her Golden Gun. As another wave of Vex changed their focus to them, Lus roared with fury.

"There's no end! We'll never make it through at this rate!" Lus ripped The Lament out of a Minotaur and charged to meet the next one. After landing from burning down another Wyvern, Jose suddenly called for Lus.

"Lus! I have an Idea!"

Lus yelled while sawing through a Wyvern. "Out with it!"

"Are you in range for a Thundercrash?"

"No! Otherwise I would've done it already!"

Jose released a Chaos Reach from point-blank range at a Minotaur, melting through its armor and penetrating it. He then activated Dawnblade and blazed his way over to Lus. He suddenly grabbed Lus' massive arm and took to the skies. Without warning, he spun around like a hurricane and launched Lus towards the monastery. As Lus looked back, he saw Jose rain down fire on the Vex below like a blazing angel.

"You clever bastard..." He chuckled, now aware of Jose's plan. His body began to laugh with lightning, and with a boom, he rocketed away towards the monastery.

Catherine managed to cut another fan headed soldier down. Despite their best efforts, the army continued to blitz the monastery, this time they were nearly upon the second wall. As she went to engage one with frills around it, a powerful red bolt from a horned soldier struck in between her side and her gut, causing her body to fold like a piece of paper. As she screamed out of agony, the soldier with the frills began to charge her. She grit her teeth and drove her sword into the ground, attempting to use it to leverage herself up, but ultimately she fell again, this time on her back. She felt her body growing cold, her vision blurring. She felt her side becoming a blazing inferno of immense pain. A single tear began to squeeze out of her left eye, as she resigned herself to her fate.

At least this way, she died with honor.

She began to shut her eyes, wishing to see all her memories one last time before she was sent to the goddess above. She wished for her sacrifice to mean something against this assault. She wished for someone worthy to take up Thunderbrand and put an end to this madness.

"Please..." She begged in her head. "Please goddess, stop this. Please save Lady Rhea..."

She heard Shamir call out her name. "Catherine! Get up! You can't die here!"

"Sorry Shamir..." she started as she felt herself succumbing to the pain. It was here that she began to remember what death truly felt like.

It was cold.

It was unrelenting.

It was terrifying.

She spent so long inflicting it that she forgot the fear of it.

However, time seemed to slow as something behind the metallic soldier caught her eye. It appeared to be someone shrouded in lightning, flying straight towards her. She fully shut her eyes as the metallic soldier reared up its leg. She waited for the cold embrace of death.

It never came.

Instead, a thunderous sound rocked her ears.

* * *

Lus slammed his body into the ground, landing straight on a Wyvern about to crush someone. Without hesitating for a moment, he unloaded a shotgun shell straight into the gut of a nearby Hobgoblin. He then threw his arms out to create a Ward of Dawn, before kneeling over the knight on the ground.

"Can you run?" Lus asked as the knight looked up to him with a shocked and horrified expression on her face. When no immediate reply came, he picked the knight up princess style running with her straight to her comrades. All of which looked upon the Titan with expressions of awe and fear. As he ran with the knight behind the line of shields erected by the rest of the knights, an Indigo haired woman ran up to him and helped set the knight down. He then summoned a Sentinel shield and raised it, creating an impenetrable barrier. He began to bark orders to the other shield bearers, all of whom still gazing upon him like he was some sort of god.

"All of you, retreat to the monastery now! I can handle this!" Most of them obeyed this order, hesitating for a second before falling back, some helping the wounded up as they ran back to the monastery. However, there was one with orange hair who remained. He grit his teeth and began to say something to the Titan. Before he could speak, Lus commanded the shieldbearer to move. "This is not the time to be brave! This is the time to live! Retreat now!" The oranged haired shieldbearer's face shifted to one of shock, as he begrudgingly turned tail and hurried back to the monastery. Lus however, advances. He pushes upon the legion of Vex, all of whom are futilely attacking his shield as he presses on. Suddenly he bashes a Minotaur down with his shield, before arcing his right fist up and charging it with arc energy. He slams his fist into the ground, electrocuting a horde of Vex. As the onslaught now advanced towards him, he conjured a Burning Maul and smirked.

"Bring it."


	4. Chapter 4

"Oh, you've gotta be shitting me!"

Jose was currently hovering above the battlefield, watching as an endless blitz of Vex were marching on the monastery. While Jose could see Lus holding off the horde marching through the walls, it appeared another horde was breaking off and attempting to find another way in. Among this horde, He saw a Mind resembling a Gatelord. He launched three fiery discs towards the horde before he began to fall to the Earth. He planted his sword into the ground, killing several Vex as he created a radiant well of light. He called for Moa to move to the well, which she obliged, dodging in after finishing a nearby Minotaur with her knives. Jose activated his comms and updated the team on the advancement in the situation.

"A bunch of Vex and a Mind are moving around you Lus!"

Lus's voice came on the comms, picking up his grunts from fighting off the horde.

"There's another one here too! This one's a Hydra!"

Jose reloaded his Telesto as he began to dash after the now flanking horde, slowing down to destroy a few Goblins in his way.

"Moa, you're gonna have to handle these alone!"

"Right! I got it!" Moa replied, summoning her favorite Golden Gun before letting it spew out mayhem.

Jose summoned wings of flame, taking to the skies. He began to blaze his way over to the horde that was flanking Lus and the Monastery, raining down fire on the Vex below him, before letting his flames disappear in favor of a Nova Bomb, devastating the rest of the Vex horde. He fell to the ground, unleashing a full magazine worth of Telesto bolts, all detonating and taking at least one Vex with them. Even though Jose had already ended enough Vex to put Moa in debt, there was still a sizable amount left to be slain. Jose cursed before tossing a void grenade into the advancing crowd of Wyverns and Goblins

"The hell? There's so many!" Came Jose as he sent a Goblin spiraling into the void with his palm. Jose jumped and glided away from the horde, mentally sighing, and preparing himself for his next trick.

"Chopstick, you ready?"

Jose didn't hear a reply from Chopstick, but he could feel his companion nodded. Jose briefly took a deep breath and closed his eyes, before tossing a Duskfield grenade into the horde, slowing them. Jose then summoned a staff of cosmic ice, shooting a blast of entropy, stopping several Vex from advancing. He then hovered near the horde, before raising his staff up and shattering his enemies around him.

He felt himself enjoying this.

He smirked as he sent another Penumbral Blast towards the unfrozen horde.

He felt natural annihilating his enemies like this.

He loved being a Shadebinder.

He-

"No…" Jose mentally paused. "I need to focus. I can't let it control me. Stasis is a tool, nothing more…" He shattered one more group, before getting rid of his staff and sending out a Chaos Reach, purging his enemies in front of him. As Jose advanced towards the Mind, he checked to make sure his Ghost was okay.

"Chopstick, how are you feeling?"

"I've been better. For now, let's focus on killing this mind."

"Yeah…" Jose stated as he unloaded a Telesto blast to a group of Vex behind him. He turned to look at the Mind who was ascending the hills of the walls. While Jose had mostly killed the Vex in the area following the Mind, there were still a few stragglers trailing behind it.

Jose chucked another Duskfield grenade into the fray, freezing his enemies in front of him. He quickly glided over and used a Penumbral Blast to shatter the Vex stragglers inside the grenade. The massive Minotaur finally turned around and began to fire at Jose, backpedaling to keep its advance on the monastery. Jose quickly summoned Dawnblade, flying up while weaving around the blasts from the Mind's Torch Hammer as he came to the skies, coming face to face with the Gatelord.

"Yo." He growled, scowling.

* * *

Moa grunted as she summoned her Arc Staff, using it to electrocute the Vex around her in a circle. She sighed as more Vex started to advance towards her. As she was surrounded, she shot an arrow of Void at her feet, tethering the Vex around her. She then rolled away from the circle of Vex, before firing her Golden Gun, easily melting down the Vex like it was target practice. As her Golden Gun dissipates, she is stung in the side by a Hobgoblin's rifle. This forces her to dodge back, before quickly taking down the Hobgoblin using her carbine. She saw another group of Vex begin to come out of the forest. She scowled, thinking that there was no way this force was just intended to take the monastery. There was something in this world they wanted. She called into her comms to check on the status of her teammates as she began to unload yet another Golden Gun into the incoming force.

"What's the status of those Minds guys?" She called, trying to hide the tiredness in her voice, pondering whether or not her Golden Gun could last longer.

"Working on it!" Chopstick called in place of Jose, whom she assumed was busy defeating the Gatelord.

"Ours as well!" Came Cinnamon. "Just hold out a little longer!"

"Yeah…" Moa replied almost silently. Hornet's voice came over comms, frantically telling the Titan and Warlock to speed it up.

"Guys, Moa's light is beginning to wane! You have to hurry!"

"Hornet's overreacting...I'm just a little tired, that's all..."

Moa's Golden Gun dissipated. It was starting to take more and more shots to kill the Vex around her, and conversely, more and more Vex seemed to appear. She had used far too many Golden Guns in quick succession. She was briefly forced to retreat behind a treeline. Hornet briefly appeared and gave Moa a recharge of light.

"You're overdoing it!" She exclaimed before disappearing back into her body.

"I have to, otherwise Lus and Jose'll be overwhelmed! The monastery will fall!"

If Ghosts could scowl, Hornet would be doing it. Her Guardian had a point, but she was still playing it a bit too dangerously. Moa didn't have the power of Stasis. She was relatively new as a Guardian, being revived just before Ghaul took her light. She wasn't nearly as strong as Jose or Lus, nor was she used to expending her light rapidly like this, but she still wanted to make a difference. Moa sighed as she reloaded her carbine before turning to face the next horde of Vex.

She wasn't going to die here. She still had so much to learn from her fireteam.

* * *

Lus scowled as he continued to smash through the Vex horde with fists of lightning. He was attempting to blaze a path straight to a massive Hydra resembling Belmon, the Transcendent Mind. He felt himself getting exhausted from his flashy use of the Light. But he ignored his tiredness. He had to keep going, lest the monastery fall, and he loses another fireteam member. As he continued to slam into the ground, creating shockwaves and lightning storms where he walked, he recognized that there was little chance of the monastery surviving if he didn't turn to the Darkness. Lus leaps up in the air, reaching within himself as he covers himself in cosmic ice, before slamming to the ground, sending out a wave of Stasis freezing the Vex in front of him. He felt the call of the Darkness.

That this was truly the only way to save those he cared about.

He heard whispers, telling him that if he had Stasis, he could've saved Doma.

He began to feel that he needed Stasis.

But he overruled those thoughts with his will, before blasting off with a Thundercrash towards the Hydra, shattering those around him on the ground. As he flew through the air, he left streaks of lightning, electrocuting those below him. Finally, with a thunderous crash, he made impact with the Mind, rocking it greatly. As the Mind roared with fury, Lus stays near the mind, grabbing the Hydra's head and neck, supercharging his arms with his light. He pulls with all his might and begins to rip the Hydra open. As the Vex below him unfroze and began to fire upon him, he let out a rage-filled cry, violently tearing the Hydra's top part off before falling to the ground, shifting his weight to fall on a Minotaur before quickly shoving a slug into his shotgun and shooting it at another. Lus rolled to his side to avoid a Gravity Slam from an incoming Wyvern, before charging with both his body and his fists to evaporate it with lightning. He then turned around to see that the onslaught of Vex appeared smaller. The Titan filled his body with light, before turning himself into a Guardian wrecking-ball and charging into the onslaught. He summons a Stasis gauntlet in his right hand, his left surging with arc energy. Futilely, a Minotaur rushes Lus, its assault lasting all of a moment as Lus freezes it with a right hook before crushing its core with his Arc charged fist.

"I've got an idea..." Lus said malevolently as he smirked to himself.

He grabs the Minotaur's body, using his Dunemarchers and his light to charge it with Arc before swinging it like a maul, sending a wave of Vex crashing to the ground, many being turned into Blue wisps. Those who were not electrocuted were turned into perfect crystals by Lus, slamming his Stasis gauntlet into the ground, creating a wave of cosmic ice that suspended any Vex that stood in the Titan's face. Lus continued to drag the Minotaur's body, which was surging with Arc Light both from the Titan's exotic boots and his fist. As he swung at the next herd of Vex, he began to let himself unleash the fury of a Titan. Now that the Mind was dead, he could focus on his next goal.

Turning the Vex into dust.

* * *

Rhea's face was riddled with concern at the situation. An unknown metallic army had begun to march upon the Monastery. This army wielded unforeseen strength and weapons, and it appeared that some were even able to use teleportation magic. In all her many years, she had never seen anything like those things. Many Knights of Seiros had already fallen to this army, and that number was sure to increase unless something was done. She had considered her options greatly, even considering using what she thought to be the last resort. As she moved to her balcony, using it to view the endless march, she saw a massive metal soldier fighting against...An angel?

As she focused her eyes, she saw that it was a fiery figure wielding a sword of flame, using it to destroy these soldiers. Her mind raced with thoughts.

"Who is that?"

"How are they fighting that thing so easily?"

"What magic is that?"

She continued to watch the figure from her vantage point scrutinously. Were they friend? Or foe?

* * *

Jose slammed his flaming blade into the collarbone of the Mind, before ripping it out and using it to incinerate the Mind's joints. Even though the mind was shooting out massive blasts from its Torch Hammer, Jose was far too nimble, pestering the Mind like he was a flaming Mosquito. Despite the hail of flames Jose was creating, the Mind was surprisingly resilient. Jose flew to the back of the mind, deciding to try something different. Jose's body became a lightning battery, as he shot his hand forward, and from it, a devastating beam of Arc energy blasted towards the Gatelord's core. The Mind lurched forward to protect itself, firing a meteor from its Torch Hammer forcing Jose to stop the beam. Jose then began to fall, forcing him to use his glide to slow his fall. It was here that Jose smirked as an idea arrived in his head.

"Chopstick, get ready to res me!"

"Wait what?" Came Chopstick, confused by his Guardian's sudden outburst.

Jose blinked forward towards the Mind, disappearing. As Jose vanished, the Mind began to look around, scanning for the Guardian. Jose was nowhere to be seen, not on the ground, nor in the air. Meanwhile, Jose was inside a cramped space, with barely enough room to move his hands. Jose focused pure Void energy in one hand, using it to create a Nova Bomb. He then released it, causing the blast of Void energy to detonate, annihilating the Mind from within, Jose included. As the Mind began to dissipate into nothingness, Chopstick floated away from any Vex eyes down to the earth and reconstructed his Guardian. Chopstick chuckled.

"Okay, that was pretty cool."

Jose smirked, giving his Ghost a light fistbump. "Thanks, I try sometimes. Now let's hurry to Moa."

* * *

Moa shot down a nearby Harpy before quickly whacking a nearby Goblin with her Arc Staff. She was doing pretty well against these machines, but she felt herself growing tired. The Vex seemed to stop pouring out from the forest, which made Moa think that Jose and Lus succeeded. Now it was just a matter of cleaning up the rest. Moa dodged an incoming grenade from a Hobgoblin before rushing it and ripping through it with her knife. Using that same knife, she threw it at a Minotaur, causing it and the knife to explode, taking two Harpies nearby with it. The Vex attacking her formed into a line and began to push onto her, forcing her back. As Moa came to a standoff with the Vex, she began to charge her hands with Solar energy. Hornet anxiously asked her Guardian what she intended to do.

"Moa, what're you doing?"

"Just wait a bit, the perfect shot is almost here."

"Moa they'll kill you!" Hornet yelled as she saw her Guardian stared the Vex down. But no reply came from Moa as her hands continued to glow with fire. The Vex line began to unleash an unyielding hail of fire at Moa. Moa, however, did not move. Instead, time seems to slow for her as she whips both of her hands up, creating two Golden Guns. Both of which unleashes an utter hell for the Vex line, all of them melting as fiery bullets shred through their cores. The telltale sound of a Golden Gun is doubled, making it the last sound the onslaught ever hears. Moa continues to fire both Golden Guns at breakneck speeds, slaying all the Vex who were foolish enough to continue facing her. Finally, the line is broken, and all that is left are stragglers who were lucky enough to not get hit, but not lucky enough a second time. Silence falls over the fields as Moa's voice cracks with surprise.

"I...I did it! That was awesome!"

Hornet, awestruck, feels an odd sense of pride washing over her, watching her Guardian dance with joy. "Moa, you just dual-wielded Golden Guns! That was astounding! That's a feat on the levels of Lus and Jose!"

"Really? Awesome!"

On cue, Jose calls over comms.

"Moa, are you two alright? I'll be over there in a sec!"

Moa practically had to push down the pride in her voice to avoid sounding too smug. "We're fine. All the Vex have been killed."

"Wait...seriously?" Lus asks incredibly, pausing to crush a Goblin.

Hornet this time answered for Moa, the smugness in her voice coming through. "Seriously. My Guardian just dual-wielded Golden Guns."

"That's awesome!" Chopstick commended.

Moa sighs of relief before replying. "There's no more Vex coming through here. I think we did it."

Hornet voices her agreement, confirming this. "Yes, I'm not picking up any more Vex signals other than a few stragglers by Lus."

Jose chuckled at this, deciding to poke a bit at Lus. "Wow Lus, how are you gonna let the rookie beat you like that?"

Lus chuckled. "Hey, we all have our off days."

Meanwhile, Moa smiled. She had done it. While Jose and Lus repeatedly assured her that her spot on the fireteam was deserved, she felt proud of herself.

In her eyes, she was now officially the Hunter of Fireteam Noctis.

* * *

Dimitri, Claude, and Edelgard were in the chapel of the monastery, heavily panting. Dimitri looked up at the classmates and allies rushing in, his face still contorted from the horrors of what he saw today. Fearfully, he turned to his fellow house leaders.

"What are they? They're unlike anything I've ever seen!"

"I wish I knew… are...are they even human?" Edelgard looked down with an almost shameful expression on her face, her hands shaking out of fear. Claude stood up from having his hands on his knees.

"They don't look like any humans I know. They've gotta be something else entirely." Claude said as nervously shook his head.

Edelgard took a moment before she fully stood up, the fear obvious on her face. "They were so cold, heartless, unrelenting...hollow…" She trailed off.

"The Knights of Seiros alone cannot survive against an army of that...kind. I should send a messenger to Fhirdiad…maybe Lord Rodrigue will send troops to aid us?" Dimitri came, frantically trying to think of solutions.

"By the time they got here…" Claude began, his mind also racing for any and all pathways out of this predicament. "The Monastery would be long gone. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place…"

"I...know...but still…"

Dimitri began to survey the chapel, looking for any signs that his fellow Blue Lions made it out alive. Worry began to creep within him as he saw more and more injured flood into the Chapel, some even being students. Alas, Dimitri briefly gave a sigh of relief as he saw Sylvain, Felix, and Ingrid leaning against a nearby column. He quickly ran over to them.

"Everyone! I'm so grateful to see you three made it out alive!"

"Your highness! Thank the goddess you're safe!" Ingrid's face lightened as she heard Dimitri's voice. She shifted to face Dimitri. "Are you wounded at all?"

"I'm okay, thank you, Ingrid. Are you three alright?"

Sylvain sighed as he nodded. "I'm...okay as well." Ingrid simply nodded, visibly still shaken from the experience they had. If Felix could show any hint of fear, this would be it. He was leaning against a column with his arms crossed, his breath ragged, staring at the ground.

"I'm fine."

Dimitri simply nodded as he understood his childhood friends' apprehension. "Have you seen the others?"

"Your highness!" A deep voice called out. As if on cue, Dimitri's retainer, Dedue ran to him, the rest of the Blue Lions following behind him. "Are you hurt? Do you need assistance?" Dimitri put his hands up, signifying for Dedue to slow down, but also giving him a small, warm smile.

"I'm fine, thank you Dedue. What of you and the others?" A Blue Lion of short stature and Orange hair suddenly piped into the conversation

"Well, thanks to Mercedes and Dedue, we're all okay!" "Annette's right, Mercedes healed us and Dedue made sure we were safe! They helped us a lot!" Another Blue Lion with Gray hair smiled. Dimitri nodded at this with a warm smile.

"Good to see that you're doing alright, Ashe and Annette." Dimitri paused as he looked around the chapel once again. "Has anyone seen the professor?"

"I think I saw him helping people into the chapel..." Ingrid said gloomily, bowing her head to look at the floor halfway through the sentence.

"I see." Dimitri interrogated, shocked. "It's relieving to hear that he's alright…Perhaps he can advise us on what our next course of action is." Felix looked over Dimitri's shoulder and saw their new professor approaching.

"Maybe you should ask him yourself." Felix grunted, pointing over to the now approaching Byleth. Dimitri turned around, the sight of Byleth giving him a great reprieve.

"Professor! I'm glad to see you made it out alive. Are you injured? Mercedes can heal you if needed." Byleth shook his head, his face remaining emotionless as normal.

"No, I'm fine."

Dimitri paused before speaking again. "What of those...creatures? How are the knights holding up?"

Byleth put his hand on his chin, pondering a thought as he spoke. "The knights have fallen back for now. They're retreating."

"I...see. I assume that means we'll be evacuating then."

Sylvain nervously laughed. "And in the first moon of school too…"

Byleth nodded. "Possibly. But there was a figure who saved Catherine...and went to face those things alone…"

"Alone?!" Dimitri interrobanged. "But against an army of that size, surely that's suicide!"

"That's what I thought too, but they look to be handling themselves." Shamir interjected as she warily walked over, dragging her bandaged leg to the group chat about the encroaching army. "Whoever they are, they saved her life." Shamir sighed as she leaned on a church pew to support her weight.

"You seriously mean to tell me that one person went to face those things alone?" Dimitri stated incredulously. Before Shamir could manage a reply, loud cheers and shouts of joy began to resonate outside the church. Shamir gestured towards the church doors.

"Take a look for yourself."

As the Blue Lions headed for the door and hurried outside, they expected to see an incoming onslaught of the metallic soldiers. What they did not expect to see, is one figure, holding its fist up in triumph.

They had won?

* * *

On the other side of the battlefield, Lus could finally breathe as he crushed the last Goblin in his fist. The battle was exhausting, but they had done it. Suddenly Cinnamon spoke, appearing above Lus' shoulder.

"I think they're looking at you…" Cinnamon stated, turning to look at the many people watching his Titan from a distance. It was then when Lus took an idea.

"I'm gonna try something I saw in this old Golden Age anime." He said, still not turning to face the crowd.

He simply rose his fist in the air.

The monastery exploded with cheers.


	5. Chapter 5

"Zavala, I've still had no response from Fireteam Noctis. Ordinarily, they'd be long past done by now. I'm considering checking it out myself."

Zavala's brows furrowed as he began to think, listening to the transmission from the Exo Stranger. Saying nothing, he rose out of his seat and walked towards his view of the Traveler, newly reformed.

"Zavala?"

"Thank you, Elisabeth. Please keep me updated."

"Of course."

The blue display on Zavala's screen turned off with the transmission from Elsie Bray. Zavala sighed, the pure stress of the situation weighing down on him. Fireteam Noctis, a team of some of the most skilled Guardians, had gone to investigate recent Vex activity on Europa. However, their last transmission was more than several hours past. As it stood, Guardians were being spread thin everywhere. The disappearance of one team could be catastrophic. With the recent disappearance of Io, Titan, Mars, and the Leviathan, They needed all the manpower they could get.

Codebreakers have reported that the Cabal are rallying once again, this time under Calus' daughter, Caiatl. The Hive god of war, Xivu Arath has begun corrupting Eliksni and Cabal forces in the Reef. On Europa, several Guardians are preventing House Salvation from scavenging the ruins of the Morning Star. Osiris had lost Sagira, rendering him mortal. More and more Guardians are turning to powers of the Darkness. There are even disturbing reports of the Kentarch-3 falling to darkness.

Chaos had been unleashed upon the system.

Zavala looked upon the Last City's night skyline, pondering to himself the futileness of their struggle. No matter how much they won, it continued to seem like they were the ones losing. He was the Vanguard commander, but he had no plan. He was the face of the City, and yet he was broken. He was lost. For the first time in a long time, Zavala was scared.

But then he remembers the sudden influx of new Guardians arriving home, at the city. He remembers the upcoming Dawning, and how happy it makes some in the city below. He remembers the children playing pretend in the streets. He remembers the promise he made to the City.

Perhaps they would be alright.

In the meantime, his mind is occupied with the whereabouts of Fireteam Noctis. He needed a plan. Zavala walked out of his office, apologizing to the intern he bumped into while heading outside to take the lift up. Perhaps Fireteam Tengoku would be the right ones for the job? Although he does know of the...bitter rivalry between the two fireteams, it would not be the first time they were forced to work together. As Zavala descended the staircase leading to the tunnel of the Bazaar, he sighed as two Guardians skipped the stairs entirely and ran down into the Bazaar. Zavala continued and walked through the tunnels, as he once again felt the cold chill of the night. He spotted Ikora and began to walk to her.

"Ikora."

Ikora Rey turned as she heard the recognizable voice of Commander Zavala call out her name.

"What can I help you with, Zavala?"

Zavala stayed silent as he briefly walked past Ikora and stared up at the Traveler in the City's night sky. He furrowed his brows and sighed. "Fireteam Noctis...has gone missing. And we don't know why…"

Ikora paused for a moment, analyzing the information she was just given. "That certainly is...concerning. What were they doing last?"

"They were investigating a resurgence of Vex on Europa. Lus' Ghost said something about the Vex there stopping before moving to an unknown place. Fireteam Noctis are some of the most skilled Guardians in our arsenal...to lose them would be far worse than a devastating blow to the City…"

Ikora Rey solemnly nodded before pausing, slightly arching her left eyebrow up. "What are you suggesting we do, Zavala?"

Zavala walked forward and held on to the guardrail blocking a fall. His grip briefly tightened before letting go as he felt the metal underneath his hands warp. "I...don't know. I was considering sending in Fireteam Tengoku...but I don't want a repeat of what happened on Titan...I came to you to ask for your advice."

Ikora smiled. It was an insignificant, and solemn one, but it was a smile. She then shifted her eyes to the Traveler. "I believe in them."

Zavala turned to face her, a small bit of surprise washing over his face.

"Fireteam Noctis has done the impossible several times before. They'll do it once again. Lus has slain Hive, Fallen, and Vex gods. I'm fairly certain the word has lost its meaning to Lus. Jose is a Crucible champion. He has the fourth-highest Crucible winning streak. Moa, while new compared to the other two, has already ended enemy leaders all over the system. You know how valuable of an asset she's been on Strikes and Nightfalls. They killed Ghaul. They saved us. While I don't think sending Tengoku in to investigate is a bad idea, I do hope you have as much faith in them as I do."

Zavala walked over to Ikora before turning to face the Traveler once again, this time standing shoulder to shoulder with his comrade, but most importantly, friend. He smiled.

"I do."

* * *

"Who are they?"

A green-haired girl sat on a throne of stone, resting her head on her fist. Outside of the mental realm, Byleth puts his hand on his chin, immersing himself in thought. Sothis removes her head from her fist, leaning back in her throne.

"First, what was that army that appeared and wreaked havoc upon us? They're unlike anything I've ever seen! And are invulnerable to almost anything we did! Rewinding time did nothing against them!" Sothis is sitting forward now, her face twisting with confusion. "Then, this ...whatever it is...shows up and destroys the army like they do it daily!" Sothis sighs in an attempt to cool down, before resting her head on her fist once again. "Perhaps I've forgotten about them? They don't seem familiar at all." Sothis paused, her mind racing to think about the new revelations she just beheld. "Well don't just stand there! Do you have any idea on who they could be?"

Byleth shook his head, not removing his hand from his chin. "They're not from around here…" He thought to himself and Sothis. Sothis guffawed.

"Well, obviously they're not from around here! Otherwise, we or someone else would've heard about them!"

"Professor!"

Byleth jarringly was dragged out of his thoughts when three curious house leaders approached him. The three of them all appeared to be having a hard time processing the utter chaos that just occurred. Dimitri was the first to speak.

"That was...a sight to see, was it not? This individual appears, using odd magic and crushes the army that would've crushed us!"

Byleth nods, his body gestures still suggesting that he's deep in thought. "I wonder who they are…"

Edelgard begins to think as well. "Whoever they are, their skill is beyond anything I've ever seen. I wonder if they'd be interested in joining the Empire? That is, assuming they are on our side…"

Dimitri put his hand to his chin. "I'm sure they are. Otherwise, why wouldn't they attack the monastery while it's under siege? Furthermore, Shamir says that one of them saved Catherine's life."

Claude smirked before adding his piece to the debate. "Who knows, outsiders can be pretty clever. Guess the only way we'll find out is if we go ask ourselves."

"Indeed." Byleth nodded. Edelgard and Claude turned and began to reunite with their respective houses, with the former being met by her retainer as they whisper something to each other. The rest of the Blue Lions then met with their leader and professor. Annette eagerly decides to take point in the conversation.

"Wasn't that awesome! They completely destroyed those bad guys!" Dimitri gave a warm smile before agreeing with Anette.

"Truly. They saved us all! I do look forward to meeting them soon. They deserve our greatest gratitude after all. In addition, some knights are reporting that they saw a flaming angel fighting off the metal army, as well as some reporting that they saw something burning those in the forest!"

"So there's more than one?" Ashe asked incredulously.

Dimitri nodded at his Gray-haired friend and smiled. "There very well may be."

Sylvain gave a slight chuckle before running his hand through his hair.

"I wonder if any of them are girls? That'd be somethi-ouch!" Sylvain yelped as Ingrid pinched his arm.

"I'm more interested to see how they fight up close. I'm gonna have to spar with one-hey!" Felix growled as Ingrid pinched his arm as well. Ingrid simply sighed before letting go.

"Why do you two only want to fight or woo someone?" She asked, causing the students to begin to chuckle at this, some more so than others. Byleth smiled before turning to look at the hero who held its fist in the air.

Who were they?

* * *

"Alright then, we'll call it draw."

Lus called over comms as he proudly holstered his shotgun on his back before dusting his hands off. Outside the monastery walls, Jose nodded and gave an Exo's smirk under his helmet to this, while Moa groaned and sighed.

"Fine. Whatever." She scowled as she began to stretch out. "So, what're we gonna do now? They obviously never have seen us before, so they'll be on us like we're gods or something."

Jose holstered his Telesto before summoning wings of flame in order to fly over to meet the rest of his fireteam. "I mean, we kinda are. We deal with world-ending threats almost daily."

"True, but what I'm worried about is how are we gonna explain our situation? And how can we explain the whole Vex thing without breaking their brains? And the whole alternate dimension and-oh boy...this is gonna be rough..."

Lus sighed before answering. "Pretty sure there is no way without breaking their brains." Suddenly Cinnamon appeared over Lus' shoulder.

"Not to mention, how are we gonna get back? We've been gone for a while now, and I haven't been able to contact Zavala or Elsie or anyone else for that matter." Cinnamon added, the worry obvious in his voice.

"Since we're all asking questions here, why were there so many Vex? Especially here, specifically? Normally Vex are everywhere, but it appears that they focused on infiltrating the Monastery for some reason." Chopstick asked as he and Jose located Monica, to whom they began to float down. After Moa briefly greeted him, they changed directions to go meet Lus.

"Definitely. For now, I think we need to focus on establishing contact with the Vanguard, and figuring out what it is the Vex want here. I think if we do that, we'll be able to answer all our other questions." Hornet's voice stated as she too appeared over her Guardian.

"Well then, first we clean up these Vex bodies, next we go meet these humans!" Lus confidently spoke as he turned to approach the monastery.

* * *

Rhea pondered to herself several thoughts as three figures, including the angel she saw earlier, began to approach Garreg-Mach. In her limitless years, she had never seen anyone or anything that fought as they did, whatever they were. Suddenly Seteth came running to meet her.

"Lady Rhea! Three figures are approaching the monastery. One of them somehow managed to defeat the metallic soldiers that were assaulting Garreg-Mach, the others I do not know from where they came. They-"

Rhea briefly closed her eyes and nodded at her right hand man. "I know, Seteth. For now, they deserve a welcome to Garreg-Mach. Without them, this place may not be standing."

Seteth's face turned to one of bewilderment. "But, Lady Rhea...all due respect, but can we really trust these mysterious figures to not threaten the monastery?"

"Seteth, if they wished to attack the monastery, they would've either had done so during the metallic soldiers' attack, or they'd be attacking now. Not to mention their victory over the metallic army. For now, I wish to meet with them. Perhaps they have answers, where we have questions. Please let them know I request their presence."

"...Of course, Lady Rhea." Seteth begrudgingly nodded and turned to go down to meet the mysterious heroes.

* * *

As Fireteam Noctis began to ascend the stairs leading to the monastery, they were met with people and knights shouting praise and cheering with joy. The expressions on their faces were that of relief, excitement, happiness, and awe. Lus could barely parse the words being thrown his way.

"You're amazing!"

"Were you sent by the goddess?"

"How did you fly like that?"

"Can we trust them?"

"Can I spar with you sometime?"

"I bet he's handsome under that helmet!"

"Are you with the Kingdom?"

"We should capture them and interrogate them!"

"Look at the weapon on his back!"

"They're scary!"

"Can you show me how to do that spell?"

The thunderous roars of the crowd drowned out any normal form of communication between the fireteam, forcing them to switch to comms. Lus spoke first.

"Quite the welcoming party."

"Indeed. Especially for people who showed up out of nowhere..." Hornet stated over comms.

As they arrived at the top of the stairs, they finally saw the true size and grandeur of the monastery. It was a massive sprawling area, with some Towers reaching to the sky and beyond. There was a lake, a garden, what the three assumed to be dormitories, a cafeteria, and of course, a beautiful Gothic chapel in the distance. Moa inspected her gorgeous surroundings, being overtaken by awe at the sight of this.

"It's one thing to see abandoned and old castles and what-not in the EDZ...but to see it when it's actually alive is something else…"

Jose began to circumspect his surroundings as well, muttering "I know…" before looking forward to prevent himself from running into anything. As the fireteam entered a Gothic structure that appeared to be some sort of entrance hall of sorts, a team of what Lus assumed to be knights due to him recognizing the Orange-haired shieldbearer walked down to meet them. A man with silver armor and slicked back brown hair was the first to speak.

"Well...what can I say but thank you? You saved the monastery and us." The man smiled as he extended his hand for a handshake. Lus took the hand, shaking it gently as to not rip it off from his strength. The man briefly wore a shocked expression before looking back at the Titan. "Wow, you've got quite the grip! My name is Alois, I'm the current leader of the Knights of Seiros. What of you and your allies?"

Lus let go of Alois' hand before gesturing to his comrades. "Thank you, Sir Alois. Well, on my right is my friend, and rival, Jose-5. Where we hail from, he would be of the Warlock class, which we'll explain more about later." Suddenly, Chopstick materialized, causing the crowd gathering around them to go into a cacophony of

"What's that?"

"Woah"

"Ah!"

"Ooh!"

"What kind of magic do they have?"

"It's cute!"

"Cool!"

Other sounds of awe filled the area as the Ghost hovered through the air. Lus pointed with his thumb to Chopstick. "And that is Jose's Ghost...not the kind you're thinking of. Again, we'll explain later. On my left are the newest members of our team, Moa, and her Ghost, Hornet. She is of the Hunter class where we come from. And lastly, I'm Lus-3. My Ghost is currently hiding cause he's shy, but his name is Cinnamon. I am of the Titan class. Together, we make up Fireteam Noctis. It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir Alois."

Alois' face shifted to that of surprise and confusion. "My, that's quite a lot to take in! Well, it's good to see that you're friendly! Oh! I forgot to thank you for saving Catherine earlier. She's one of our strongest, so-" Alois' was cut off as the woman now known as Catherine warily stepped forward, being supported by Shamir while holding her heavily bandaged side as she smiled at her savior.

"No need Alois, I can do it myself. Anyways, I'm Catherine, and if it wasn't for you I'd probably be speaking to the goddess right now. Well, we'd probably all be. So, yeah, thanks for saving me back there. Not to mention the students too!"

Lus managed a low chuckle. "Well, for me I was just doing my job. Is your side alright-" Lus was cut off as Cinnamon materialized, peeking over Lus' broad shoulders. "Wait, did you say students?"

The crowd around them burst with murmurs of "It talks?"

"Is it a spirit?"

"Just what is that?"

Catherine's face shifted to surprise at the tiny thing's interjection. "Well, yea little thing. Do you all not know that Garreg-Mach is also home to the Officer's Academy?"

Hornet in the background gave the equivalent of a Ghosts' nod "Well, you can say that we're not from around here. At all."

"Well then," Alois started. "Where do you all come from?"

"Uhh...well…" Before Hornet could finish, a man with Green hair approached the fireteam. He wore a stern, serious look on his face.

"Fireteam Noctis was it?" The man spoke, mentally dissecting the group with his eyes. Lus looked the man in the eyes before nodding. "The Archbishop wishes to speak with you. Come with me."

Catherine's face again changed to one of surprise. "That's a big honor! You three deserve it though, after what you just pulled off!"

Lus nodded to Catherine before turning to the Green-haired man. "Of course. Lead the way." The Green-haired man put his hands behind his back and began to walk deeper into the monastery.

* * *

"Lady Edelgard, what should we do?"

The shadowy retainer of Edelgard, Hubert mused as Edelgard as they darted into her room. Edelgard's plans had met a roadblock in these unexpected benefactors of the Monastery. She'd been meticulously plotting her moves, crafting a carefully weaved web. However, these recent events and parties could very well destroy that web with ease.

"If we can get this new "Fireteam Noctis" to join the empire, we'll be unstoppable. Even more so if we can figure out where those metallic creatures are made." Edelgard said as she sat on her bed. Hubert smirked at the thought of having these new unstoppable individuals in the Empire's arsenal.

"Certainly. However, I believe we must act quick, lest the Church steal our prey from under us."

Edelgard nodded. "Indeed. If she was able to recruit these three individuals, there is no doubt that their strength would grow exponentially. However, in the event that we fail to get them to join us, we need to figure out their weaknesses. I shall leave that to you, Hubert."

Hubert once again smirked, this time more devilishly. "Of course, Lady Edelgard." Hubert turned and departed from Edelgard's room as she continued to think. According to the one known as Lus, they all were of different classes, whatever that meant. There was also the case of the odd things floating around them. Just who were they, and how were they able to take out the metallic army so easily?

Edelgard was going to figure them out. She was going to learn how to kill them if she had to.

* * *

"Soo...how much are we gonna tell them?"

Chopstick started over comms as he spoke from somewhere within Jose. The fireteam was currently under the afternoon sky of this new world, walking through a pathway that led to a main hall of sorts. There was a garden to the left of them, as well as stables to the right of them. They were still surrounded by cheers, questions, and fearful and awestruck looks as they proceeded through the hall. Hornet was the first to reply to Chopstick's question.

"Enough to get them to trust us, but no more. We still are in unknown territory, and one wrong move could potentially screw us in more ways than imaginable."

As the Fireteam entered the main hall, Lus circumspected the area.

"Man, this place has a bad case of the anime protagonist hairs."

"Tell me about it." Jose chuckled. "Earlier when we were talking to the knights, I saw a student with Purple hair and a pretty bad haircut...if you could even call it that. The dude seriously needs to just go bald at this point. Also, anyone else find it weird we're speaking the same language?"

"That is odd, but back on to more pressing matters…" Moa began. "Are we gonna tell them about the whole resurrection thing or…"

"We can...but I don't think we tell them how to stop it." Lus replied, still looking around the hall.

The fireteam silently agreed to this before ascending a staircase that led presumably to the second floor. As they came to the top, they passed by what looked to be a library, at which Lus mentally heard Cinnamon begging for a chance to go there, to which he mentally assured him they would.

As the team finally was led to a massive door, two knights standing by it opened it. Inside was an immaculate hall of Gothic architecture, with a tall ceiling and intricate columns. On the floor was a complex pattern of differing shapes and sizes, all working together to create beautiful patterns on the floor. At the end of this immaculate hall, was a gorgeous woman with long Green hair, awaiting Fireteam Noctis. The Green-haired man led them to the woman, and the fireteam followed him in a triangle. Once the man deemed it far enough, he introduced the woman whom the group mutually assumed to be the Archbishop, and introduced them.

"Fireteam Noctis. I present to you Her Grace Lady Rhea, Archbishop of the Church of Seiros."

The three members of the team bowed to the newly introduced Archbishop. While the team presented a united front, over comms they were having another crisis.

"Uhh...Lus you're gonna talk right?" Jose invisibly panicked as he rose from the bow.

"What? I mean...I can? I just don't know how I'm gonna explain…" Lus started, feeling the panic spread to him.

"Don't mess it up!" Hornet pleaded to the Titan. "We probably have one shot at making a good impression. Especially with the Archbishop."

"We haven't already made one by saving everyone here?" Moa asked

"One Enhancement Prism says he messes up." Jose egged on.

"You're gambling right now?" Hornet asked, very confused.

"Alright shut up she's talking!" Lus whisper-shouted over comms.

As soon as Lady Rhea spoke, the fireteam felt a wave of calmness overtake them.

"I'm sure you've already received many thanks for your heroic deeds, but allow me to express my utmost gratitude for protecting the Monastery. You all have done a great service to all of Fodlan. As my right hand, Seteth has introduced me, I am Rhea, Archbishop of the Church of Seiros. May I ask where you hail from, noble heroes?"

When these words were spoken, Fireteam Noctis all groaned over comms.

"Right off the bat? I thought she'd at least go into a short monologue about the history of the monastery or something like that!" Chopstick stated over comms, shocked.

"Well looks like you're up Lus...don't screw us…" Jose said anxiously.

"Wow, thanks...real supportive…" Lus said as he rolled his eyes in his helmet.

Finally, after a pause nearly long enough to be considered awkward, did Lus speak.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. While this may be hard for you to believe, me and my comrades hail from...a different world. The same as the army that attacked your monastery. I am Lus-3, Titan Guardian. On my right is Jose-5, Warlock Guardian. And on my left is Moa Kaa, Hunter Guardian. Hovering above us are our Ghosts, Cinnamon is mine, Chopstick is Jose's, Hornet is Moa's. Together, we make up Fireteam Noctis."

"Isn't that the same thing you said earlier?" Jose sarcastically asked over comms.

"Isn't it time you shut up?" Lus retorted, conveying the same energy.

The Archbishop nodded as she heard the brief explanation of the saviors. She smiled as she spoke again.

"I see. In that case, welcome, Fireteam Noctis, to Garreg-Mach Monastery, home to the Officers' Academy and Church of Seiros. May I have the pleasure of viewing your faces?"

All of Fireteam Noctis' eyes widened. How could they forget something so simple yet so important? Jose once again began to panic as he looked to his teammates while speaking over comms.

"Ahh...what do we do? Me and Lus are Exos! Do they even have the term machine?"

"This would be way easier if one of us was human…" Moa nervously added.

"Well, we probably should. Just don't blame me if this goes wrong…" Lus stated as he reached for his helmet.

Jose stared daggers at his fellow Exo. "Of course I'm gonna blame you. You're the one talking!"

As Fireteam Noctis removed their helmets with a sequence of clicks, the faces of those in the halls shifted to that of confusion. Whether it was of fear or awe remained to be seen.

Rhea was greatly surprised by the faces of Garreg-Mach's saviors. The one who was the so-called "Titan" had an orange metallic face, with a black jaw. He had bright Azure eyes, as well as an Azure mouth. Where ears would be on a normal person, he had two Orange fins. The "Warlock" of the group also had a metallic face, this one bronze. He appeared to have a sizable hole on the upper right side of his head, with white eyes and a mouth. Finally, the "Hunter" had Light Blue skin, with short Indigo hair, the color of which being not too dissimilar to Shamir's. She too had deep blue eyes, and her skin appeared to be glowing. After studying the group's faces, she finally smiled.

Lus held his helmet at his side as he spoke.

"As you can see, we're not exactly locals here. Where we come from, Jose and I are known as Exos. We're an advanced race, that is essentially a human consciousness inside a...built body. Moa is of the Awoken race, a race of former humans that became infused with...dark energy, causing their race to turn a vibrant Blue, Purple, or Pink. We do have humans too, but no humans are in our team at the moment."

Rhea smiled. "I see. That is quite intriguing, I'm sure the scholars here would be enthralled to learn more about your races." Her smile disappeared as she began her next thought. "What of the army that attacked us today?"

Lus paused for a moment, contemplating the best explanation for the Vex. "They are known to us as the Vex. Think of them as a sentient race of numbers with a body. They wish to convert everything into themselves, be it an animate or inanimate object. We tracked them here while on an investigation. Unfortunately, my team and I still cannot say for certain why they chose here specifically."

Rhea nodded as she pondered this thought for a moment. "I see. May you divulge more about your home?"

Moa chuckled over comms. "Here we go…" The sass oozing from her voice.

"That's a..." Lus paused as he tried to figure out the best way to answer the question. "Loaded Question…"

"Ba dum tss" Chopstick sneaked in over comms.

"You see, where we come from, Humanity is on the verge of extinction…" Lus began while Cinnamon displayed a projection of the Last City, shocking everyone in the hall. Seteth in particular was shocked by this

"How does it...What is it doing?" He asked the group. Rhea however shook her head at Seteth.

"Seteth, please let them finish. My apologies, Titan Lus. You may continue."

"Long ago, we discovered the Traveler, a mythical being that gave us a Golden Age. In which nearly innumerous advancements were made. Unfortunately, an entity we know as the Darkness tracked it, and nearly wiped humanity from existence. From this, our world was sent into what we know as the Dark Age. We began to be surrounded by species and races that could annihilate us from all sides. This forced the Traveler to give birth to our Ghosts, which in turn found us and gave us our powers."

"Not bad..." Hornet muttered over comms.

Lus ignores the comment made by Moa's Ghost and continues. "Eventually, after a long age of Darkness, one city was built underneath the Traveler. Our home, The Last City. Us and many other Guardians fight to reclaim what we have lost...in hopes that we may one day reach the heights that we once had."

"Well, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be…" Chopstick muttered over comms. Jose then turned to look at the Archbishop.

"That's a...significantly shortened version of it. We'd be here for a while if you got the full version." Jose added while gesturing with his hands.

Seteth and Lady Rhea wore dumbfounded looks on their faces. Seteth was the first to speak after a period of silence.

"That's…" Seteth paused, taking even more time to process the information dump they were given. "And you say there are more Guardians like you?"

"Yes...there were many more, but we don't have any definite amount. Well...before our City was attacked. We lost an unfathomable amount during that time."

"I...see," Rhea spoke, her face shifting to sadness as she felt sympathy for her saviors. "it is unfortunate to hear that your home is in such a regrettable situation. I presume with that situation you must return soon then?"

"We planned to, but…" Lus paused, causing Hornet to move forward and speak.

"We don't have a way back. We came through a portal but we don't know where another one is."

Seteth's face shifted to one of even more shock. "It...speaks?"

Hornet simply hovered up and down as a nod.

Rhea once again nodded, her face showing obvious sympathy for the so-called Guardians.

"I see. In that case, you may remain at the Monastery for however long you need. Please feel free to use all of its amenities and facilities. You may each take one of our empty rooms that are used for instructors here. You've all more than earned it."

This somewhat shocked the Guardians. Were they really just going to let these strangers roam their monastery?

"Are you sure?" Lus asks. "We don't want you to feel forced or anything of the sort…"

"Certainly." Rhea smiled. "You're all so far from home, where else would you stay?"

"That's a good point..." Lus said as he began to bow towards the Archbishop, causing Jose and Moa to do the same.

"Thank you, truly." Jose spoke while rising out of his bow. "In return, feel free to call upon us if you ever need assistance."

"Of course. Perhaps sometime you could instruct the students here." Rhea smiled, gently, once again causing a wave of calmness to wash over Fireteam Noctis.

"It'd be our pleasure. Until next time, Your Grace." Jose once again bowed, before nearly dragging Lus out of the hall and motioning for Moa to follow. Once outside, Lus broke free from Jose's grip.

"Well, that was something..." Lus said, returning his helmet to his head.

"Seteth is definitely suspicious of us. Not to mention, I'm getting an odd feeling from her." Hornet said in place of Jose, who simply nodded to agree.

"Same...She was pretty attractive though." Jose commented while putting his helmet on.

"Jose!" The entire team sans Jose called out over comms.

"I didn't say I wanted to get with her, I was just saying that she's attractive! Besides, I'm an immortal god, if I fell in love with a mortal like her that's just a recipe for heartbreak. And it's not like I'm fawning over her like Lus with Elsie." Jose pleaded.

"What?" Lus questioned. "I don't fawn over Elsie!"

"Oh come on, it's so obvious you like her." Jose titled his head while sighing at his teammate.

"I do not like Elsie like that…" Lus trailed off, being as flustered as an Exo could be.

"Then why do you spend so much time with her?" Jose egged on, smirking at his flustered teammate under his helmet.

"Because she needs my help!" Lus pleaded, questioning in his head how the situation turned to make him the accused.

"I'm sure she does…" Jose replied snarkily. "Don't worry, I'm sure she likes you back. Ah, Exo love is quite something to see…" Jose chuckled. "You know…" Jose started, putting his hand on Lus' shoulder. "I'm sure Clovis gave Elsie a perfect replica of her real body for a rea-"

"OKAY, hit the brakes, Jose." Lus scolded over comms, cracking his fists at the same time. Lus turned to look around, deciding on where to go next. "In any case, I did get a weird vibe from her. Something tells me that she has ulterior motives. Like, under that mask, she's probably like Mara Sov."

"Definitely." Moa added. "For now, we need to act normal, as if we suspect nothing."

"Indeed." Lus agreed. "I say we take this time to split up and explore the monastery. Cinnamon's been bugging me to go to the library, so I'm going there first."

"A Titan in a library? What kind of place is this?" Chopstick questioned no one in particular.

"I think I'm gonna walk around for a bit. I'm probably gonna have to stay low though." Jose paused, thinking for a minute. "Is this what it's like to be a celebrity in the City?"

"I mean…" Moa started, putting her hand on her hip. "You are a celebrity. You're a Crucible champ. Anyways, I think I'm gonna take a look around my room for the time being. I'm interested to see what they live like here."

"Sounds like a plan. And for the time being, at least try to avoid answering too many questions. We don't want too many eager students learning about us and our immortality." Lus agreed, mentally thinking about the consequences of a bunch of teenagers spreading rumors that their saviors were immortal gods. "However, the longer we're here, the harder it's gonna get for us to keep our secrets hidden. For now, let's agree to meet before we go to bed tonight and see how the afternoon goes."

The fireteam nodded as they split up. Lus walked not far to the library, causing Cinnamon to appear and fly up in order to scan the room.

"Amazing…" Cinnamon began. "This has their entire history, as well as their mythological legends! Things about a saint named Seiros, a man named Nemesis, Crests, Heroes' Relics, there's so much!"

"Feel free to tell it to me as we walk around." Lus said, smiling as much as an Exo could at his Ghost.

"Well let's see here...so according to this, Crests are gifts from the Goddess Sothis, that give the bearer special aptitude to magic, amplified strength, or other effects. I guess the magic explains the Void blast looking thing we saw earlier."

"So, there's actual magic in this world? Well, in a way I guess the Light and Dark are just space magic." Lus said, walking to a nearby bookcase and beginning to scan it to see if anything piqued his interest.

"Yea, it kinda is. Anyways, Crests are inherited by blood, but can be expressed in different ways, kinda like genetic traits." Cinnamon said, hovering over his Titan's head in between the horns of his Moonfang helmet.

"Interesting. I can imagine that this would cause some less than favorable situations for some families, depending on whether or not they have a Crest. I'd imagine that some people try to marry into certain families with Crests in order to have a child with a Crest." Came Lus as he picked up a book about the History of Fodlan as he began to flip through it before putting it back.

"Yeah…it's messed up in a way. Apparently, Crest bearers can wield special weapons named Heroes' Relics. The legend says they were given to Ten Elites by the goddess in order to aid her in her fight against Nemesis. Ooh get this, if you don't have a Crest that corresponds with the Relic, you'll be turned into a beast. Spooky." Came Cinnamon, his shell spinning as he followed his Guardian walking around the library. "Anyways, in more current events, I've learned that the continent we're on is called Fodland. There are three nations that make it up: The Empire of Adrestia, The Kingdom of Faerghus, and The Alliance of Leicester."

"The hell are those names?" Questioned Lus, moving his eyes up under his helmet to look at his companion.

"I don't know? Anyways, I've relayed my findings to Hornet and Chopstick, so hopefully, they'll tell Moa and Jose. And-oop! Someone's coming!" Panicked Cinnamon as he phased into his Guardian blindingly fast. As Lus turned to see who was approaching, an elderly man with a cane and tan hair slicked back walked into the room, hunched over. The man smiled at the Titan.

"Greetings, savior of Garreg-Mach. I am Tomas, the librarian. I see you're interested in Fodlan's history?"

Lus paused, his suspicion spiking as he felt darkness coming from the elderly man. It was pathetic compared to the Darkness he felt from the Pyramids and Stasis, but it was there.

"Yes, I am. I'm new to Fodlan, so I'm interested in all of its customs and traditions. I'm Lus-3, it's nice to meet you, Tomas."

"Oh, please, the pleasure is all mine! Please don't be afraid to ask me questions about Fodlan if you have any, I'd be happy to answer them."

"Of course, thank you." Lus nodded on the outside, while carefully watching the librarian. Meanwhile, he spoke in secret to his ghost. "The librarian is weird. I feel a small amount of darkness emanating from him…"

"I do too...I think we should check out another place now…" Cinnamon agreed, staying within his Titan for safety.

"Thanks for the offer Tomas, but...I think I'm gonna explore the rest of the monastery for now." Lus called as he began to walk towards the library doors, not taking his eyes off of the librarian.

"Oh, so soon?" Tomas said, looking almost disappointed. "Well, just know that the library is always open for you to look around."

"Yeah, thanks…" Lus said, stepping out of the door and walking quickly to the staircase that led down to the main hall. But Lus and his Ghost both knew...

"Somethings up with him..."


	6. Chapter 6

"Ginzo!"

In the Cosmodrome, A Titan in full Exile armor, sans the Crest of Alpha Lupi, reloaded her Hawkmoon as she turned to face her Hunter comrade. The Hunter, Ginzo Nao, donned in full Empyrean gear, had simply been sitting on the launchpad with his legs dangling over the edge as the Titan, Leona Ishara, and a Warlock in Steeplechase gear, Anan Marus, finished off the rest of a sizable group of Fallen who were no more than a minor inconvenience. The fireteam was patrolling the area around a Colony Ship that remained on the launchpad, away from the clear blue sky and the stars. For some reason, the Fallen had increased their activity in the Cosmodrome. Possibly due to the influx of New Lights. Ginzo couldn't see under Leona's helmet, but he was sure she was seething with annoyance. Ginzo sat up slightly and shifted his head to look at the Titaness, who began to march towards him.

"Why are you being useless?" The Titan asked, her voice echoed as she looked up to Ginzo on the launch platform. Her vexed attitude practically suffocated the atmosphere. The Hunter simply shrugged and did not get up from his seat, but lifted a hand to gesture towards Leona as he spoke.

"I'm not! I was hanging back in case you guys needed to be res'd, which you didn't, so when I saw you guys had it handled, I was chilling! Went to the tower, got some snacks, and voila! You guys pimp slapped those Fallen! Wanna snack?"

"I'm shocked it took you this long to notice, Leona. We did all the work. Typical behavior of a Hunter, however." Anan said, the snobbiness of a Warlock practically oozing from his voice

"Ouch, Mr. Warlock." Ginzo said, rising to his feet and resting his hands on his hips. "What're you gonna do, think in my general direction? Read?"

Anan sighed, saying nothing more as he didn't wish to entertain the Hunter's antics. Leona however, took the bait.

"You're one to talk! You sitting back doing nothing is why we lost to Fireteam Noctis in that match!" She said, as she pointed a finger at Ginzo while it crackled with lightning.

"Nah, you rushing in and getting destroyed by Jose was why we lost. I died two times, you gave up a lotta points."

"I had the most defeats while you had one!" Leona retorted, her stress level rising.

"Yeah yeah whatever. Also Lee, why do you have two heads? And four arms? And two legs-wait no that's normal...man that Ether's kicking in!" Ginzo stated in a sporadic way. Leona was rumbling with anger at this point, while Anan was meditating nearby, having his Ghost, Glaucia, play calming music to drown out his teammates' argument.

"You took Ether? I can't believe you! That's it! We're doing a one-on-one match right now! Ori! Get Shaxx to watch so he knows what a lazy bastard Ginzo is!" The Titan shouted at her Ghost as she picked up a nearby piece of rubble and pulverized it with her fists.

"Let's do it! 'Means my record will be 4-3 against you! And it'll be in my new cloak! Heh, got this on sale at Eververse, used my Guardian discount, 'was almost free." Ginzo smugly remarked as he turned around and pointed to his Empyrean Cartographer cloak with both thumbs.

"You stole that." Anan said, not moving from his meditation.

"WHO TOLD YOU THAT?" Ginzo said, shocked at this accusation.

"YOU STOLE AGAIN? I CAN'T WITH YOU!" Leona growled, slamming her fists into the ground, shattering the ground beneath her.

"I'm going back to the City." Anan said, standing up from the ground. "I have far more important things to attend to."

"Yeah, same here." Leona said, before she and Anan both disappeared as their ships appeared. The Stardevil Predator and Callisto Lancer both blasted off, leaving Ginzo and Fortune on the ground, alone.

"Well, guess we better follow them. I got nothing better to do than annoy them." Ginzo said, causing the Black Peregrine to soar overhead.

* * *

As he walked around under the evening sky, Jose was followed by many groups of people. Some were who he presumed to be students, some were who looked to be nuns and knights, and some he just flat out had no idea. He was currently in what looked to be a miniature garden of sorts, with a nice area set up with chairs underneath a small gazebo. As Jose slightly turned his head just enough to see several groups of people eagerly watching him, Chopstick began to return to his usual antics.

"Hey Jose, I just wanted to say, amazing job on staying low. It's almost like you're a hunter!"

"Shut up…" Jose chuckled at his Ghost, as he began to turn into the entrance hall where his fireteam entered. Before he could enter, he was then met by three students. One was a pale-skinned girl with long white hair, and a Red cloak draped over her uniform, with enchanting purple eyes. The next was a blond student with odd-shaped hair and a Blue cloak over his uniform. The last was a Caramel-skinned student with brown hair and green eyes, he wore a Gold cloak over his uniform, which somewhat resembled a Warlock's robes. Before any of them could speak, Chopstick continued his tomfoolery over comms.

"Doesn't blond boy's hair look like Ramen noodles?"

This caused Jose to begin to crack up laughter underneath his helmet, forcing his body to go stiff to prevent his laughter from being known. The blond student was the first to speak, causing Jose to force himself to pay attention.

"Greetings, Warlock Jose-5! My fellow house leaders and I have been looking for you!"

Jose was not fully surprised by this, but it was enough to pique his interest. "Oh, please just call me Jose. And how can I help you?"

"Ah, well in that case Jose, I am Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, house leader of the Blue Lions."

After him, the White-haired girl spoke, exuding authority in her voice. "My name is Edelgard von Hresvelg. I lead the Black Eagles."

The Golden-cloaked boy was the last to speak "Claude von Riegan. House leader, and resident schemer, of the Golden Deer." the boy cleverly smiled while giving a two-fingered salute. The boy now known as Dimitri nodded and smiled, then spoke again.

"On behalf of our houses, we would like to invite you and your allies to a meal. It would serve as a thank you for saving us, and as a victory celebration. Is that alright?"

Jose nodded at the three of them, simultaneously speaking to his Ghost over comms. "Oh, so these people are RICH rich, they have long names..." He then began to actually speak to the house leaders.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all. And that's fine with me, but let me check with my friends first."

Dimitri smiled. "Of course, we will await you in the cafeteria." However, Dimitri and the other house leaders became puzzled when Jose did not move from his spot. Meanwhile, Jose was extending the invitation to his allies.

"So guys, we just got invited to a dinner party. Are ya coming?"

Hornet was the first to reply, and very quickly at that. "What? What happened to laying low?"

"Ehh…" Jose began as he walked to lean against a leg of the gazebo. "Laying low's kinda overrated."

"That's Jose talk for 'I was seen within the first ten seconds of going outside.'" Lus jeered at his teammate.

Jose chuckled at this before continuing. "And besides, it's a chance for us to get to know the students and this place better."

Moa spoke next, conveying some degree of shamefulness as she spoke. "Jose, it hasn't even been 30 minutes since we left the Archbishop's room and you've failed at laying low."

"Soo…" Jose chuckled. "You guys are coming?"

"To be fair...we do know next to nothing about this place…" Cinnamon said.

Moa was the next to speak. "Well, if there's food, I'm game."

"Great! I'll let them know!" Jose said as he clapped his hands together and turned to face the students.

"They're on their way."

Edelgard was the first to come out of her stupor. "H-how do you know? Just now, you were able to communicate with them?"

"Oh yea, they told me just now," Jose said nonchalantly as he began to look for the cafeteria before pausing. "and-oh right...you guys don't even have phones…" Jose mumbled as he facepalmed.

Chopstick was rolling with laughter. "Dumbass…" he somehow managed through his fit. Jose simply ignored him before speaking again.

"I'll explain it when we're there. For now, where is the cafeteria exactly?"

Dimitri nodded, still very confused based on the look on his face. "Right this way…" he nervously said as the two other house leaders turned to follow him. Unbeknownst to all but Jose, a hooded figure remained in the shadows, hiding around a corner, watching Jose's exchange with the house leaders. Jose eyed the figure underneath his helmet as he fell in line to follow the students.

"Someone was watching us…" Jose stated to his ghost, his voice changing to a serious one.

Meanwhile, the shadowy figure darted back around a corner, keeping in the shadows as he returned to wherever he came from. As he hurried back, locks of his long purple hair occasionally appeared in the little light that remained after sunset.

Moa sighed as she rose from her hopefully temporary bed. Jose had somehow done the exact opposite of laying low and was somehow given an invitation for Fireteam Noctis to attend a dinner party. She looked around at her current room, as she thought to herself. It was certainly bigger than she had expected, but she was used to the common amenities of the City, not used to having to use a quill for writing and having nothing but books for entertainment. At the very least, she at least had Hornet to project some shows or games on a wall. With a stretch, she got up and began to head towards the door. Hornet began to speak to Moa.

"Great...not only do we have to dodge questions from an Archbishop and her gumshoe right hand, but we also have to dodge them from eager and edgy teens…"

"I was gonna say it could be worse, but when you put it like that, it is pretty bad." Moa agreed as she began to walk under the night sky, looking up occasionally to admire the night sky.

"Ugh…" Hornet groaned. "Can't those two just not be involved in big events for 5 minutes?"

"You're asking a lot of two of them y'know...anyways, where's the cafe?"

"Should be just past here...I'm guessing it's the building with the lights on, and the utter ruckus that's coming from it."

"Oh boy...Here we go…" Moa sighed as she walked through the doors.

"See, getting rid of their head makes them go berserk. Their weak spot is their core. Hit it with enough power, and boom! They blow up in a big Vex milk explosion. S' not actually milk, though. Don't drink it. Seriously. Oh! Hey Moa!"

Jose kicked back and tipped his chair just enough to prevent himself from falling. Next to him, Lus was resting his head on his fist, having it turned to view his fellow Exo. Surrounding them were several students eagerly watching them, some standing, others sitting. In addition, some knights, as well as the teachers were listening as well. The students' hair was quite the array of weird styles and colors. Meanwhile, Lus and Jose had both of their helmets off, leaving their Exo heads out for display, causing them to receive several mystified looks. Jose turned to see Moa walking in and motioned for her to sit down.

"And as Lus introduced her earlier, this is Moa! Hunter of our fireteam. Say hi Moa!"

Moa, however, was shocked that the two were not wearing their helmets. "Hey, guys...I see you're not wearing your helmets…" She replied, walking to her seat and saying the last part through her teeth.

"Yeah...we figured they'd find out sooner or later…" Lus says, gesturing with his open hand.

"Geez, you two aren't being stealthy at all…" Moa said as she took her seat. "Anyways, what were you guys talking about?"

"Well, I just got done explaining how to kill the Vex, so that I guess."

Dimitri nodded at this. "Oh and welcome, Hunter Moa! Your actions truly saved us all today. Thank you." Moa said as she removed her helmet and revealed her Blue skin to the students, who gave her mystified looks. She smiled at the blond teen and nodded. Dimitri returned with a warm smile and continued. "But indeed! While they are fearsome and formidable creatures, I suppose everything does have a weakness…."

Edelgard raised her hand to gesture and raised another point. "Of course. The bigger an opponent is, the further they have to fall. In any case, we did not have the means to exploit this weakness."

Now it was Claude's turn to speak, who smirked. "But our heroes sure did! They beat them like they do it every day!"

Lus nodded at this. "Well, we do. It's basically a weekend activity for us. We often fight even more dangerous things."

Some students were surprised by this, while others gave a face as though that was the only logical conclusion.

"Not surprised." Claude added as he smirked.

Can you tell us what is more dangerous than the Vex?" Dimitri asked, eager to know more.

"Well…" Lus started with a sigh. "Chopstick, if you would?" The Ghost groaned and flew to the center of the table.

"Ugh...why do I have to do it?"

"Because you're the only ghost out. Now, display our enemies." Lus chuckled.

"Fine…" Chopstick said as he begrudgingly displayed a projection of a Dreg, a Thrall, a Goblin, and a Legionary. This shocked and amazed the students, all of them had their eyes glued to the projections and Lus.

"So…" Lus started as he pointed at the Goblin, causing Chopstick to switch his projection to that of a small Vex detachment, displaying at least one of each Vex unit. "As you now know, these are the Vex. A species that wishes to convert everything into themselves, and if you resist, you get snuffed out. They can travel through time, teleport, change entire planets in an absurdly little amount of time, and have been known to erase things from existence entirely."

When Lus said this, the faces of the students shifted to that of terror and fear of these things. Claude put his hand in his hair and nervously laughed.

"You're joking...right? You can't just make something stop existing entirely…"

"I wish I was…" Lus nonchalantly answered, causing Claude's face to shift to that of shock, with his house doing the same. Meanwhile, on the Blue Lions side of the table, several students were terrified, with many students on the Black Eagles side doing the same, while some looked on with morbid intrigue. "To be fair, to us Guardians, the Vex are still very dangerous. But they rank about in the middle as far as our threats go."

Dimitri was nearly paralyzed by shock at this. The raw power these beings held...they could cease one's existence entirely! "To be so powerful as to have the ability to end one's existence...inconceivable!"

Edelgard gloomily nodded at this, showing obvious respect for the bravery of these Guardians for fighting such powerful things, before having her face show some form of fear and morbid curiosity. "Where and how are the Vex made?"

"We don't exactly know. We have theories on where they come from...but that's about it." Lus said, shrugging.

A timid student from the Golden Deer, Ignatz, quickly spoke up. "What could be more powerful than that? The Vex hold more power than anything on Fodlan!"

Lus raised both his hands up and showed his palms to the group, signaling for them to slow down. "We'll get there. For now, let's go to the bottom of the list. Here, we have a race we know commonly as the Fallen, but their true name is Eliksni." Lus began as Chopstick shifted to a display of the Eliksni House of Salvation, with Eramis leading the formation of Fallen. "The Eliksni were a once noble race, but when The Traveler fled and left them, they had a collapse, similar to humanity. Their race was scattered, causing them to essentially become a race of pirates, drifting through Space and scavenging whatever they can to survive. Unfortunately, that led them right to us. They contributed a great amount to humanity's collapse. Not to mention they've attacked the City several times and failed in order to get The Traveler. While they're the weakest race we fight against, they have a knack for not dying. I gotta give it to them, they know how to survive."

A student of the Blue Lons, Mercedes, shifted her face to that of sorrow after hearing the story of the Eliksni, causing several other students to do the same.

"Is it bad that I feel sympathy for them? I know that they had to have destroyed many cities and killed many, but I can't help but feel sad for them at the circumstances that led them to these actions…" Mercedes solemnly spoke as she looked down. However, she returned her face to a normal level as Lus reassured her.

"That's a common reaction to have, actually. While many Eliksni have done unforgivable things, a lot of us actually feel for them. However, not all Eliksni are out for our necks. We actually have a few Eliksni allies, and if things go well in the future, we may one day welcome them into the City."

"Unfortunately, that day may be long in the future…" Moa gloomily added.

"While there is no situation where I can condone their actions…" Edelgard began. "I do understand that horrible situations often result in horrible actions."

Lus once again nodded at this, somewhat surprised by the maturity of this young lady. Jose nodded as he also spoke his thoughts on the matter.

"Definitely. And let's face it, humans are no saints either."

Edelgard nodded and smiled at Jose, seemingly surprised that he spoke almost her exact thoughts.

"Next, we have the Cabal." Lus began as he watched Chopstick spin and change his projection to a battalion of Red Legion Cabal. "They are a brutal empire spanning entire Galaxies."

The new word confused a lot of students, but Annette from the Blue Lions was the first to ask about it.

"What are Galaxies?" She asked, scratching her read to see if she could recognize the word from anywhere.

"Basically things made up of hundreds of thousands of solar systems, which are made up of several planets. Usually." Moa revealed, covering for her friend's shortcomings in his explanation.

This caused the students' faces to spiral into even more confusion as they tried to imagine the sheer size of this empire. For a brief moment, some Black Eagles students questioned whether or not Adrestia should even be called an empire in comparison to the Cabal's. Claude nervously laughed and scratched his head.

"Just what kind of place is your home?" The scheming leader rhetorically asked. Lus chuckled before he paused for a moment.

"3 years ago, an army of the most elite Cabal nearly destroyed the Last City and its Guardians…" Lus revealed as his comrades faces shifted to that of gloom for the first time that the students have seen, Lus in particular. "Many Guardians, and Civilians died during that war...the City still bears the scars of it to this day…"

Dimitri's face changed from shocked awe to a melancholic sympathy for the Guardians, as did other students. Some remained with a shocked expression, but the reason changed to them being shocked that something could kill someone as powerful as the Guardians. Dimitri gently put a hand on Lus' gauntlets before speaking. "I'm sure that those days are hard for you all to remember. You don't have to relive them and tell us if it brings you pain…"

Lus simply waved his hand at Dimitri. "Thanks, Your Highness, but it's quite alright. I believe with every cloud, there's a Silver lining. And for us, the Silver lining was meeting each other."

Dimitri nodded but gave a very gentle smile. "I see. How did you all meet?"

"Well, I helped Lus fend off an attack on a small settlement we had back then. We met Moa later by helping her lead Civilians to the settlement. And well, the rest is history." Jose added, once again reclining in his chair.

The students nodded at this, some even smiling as they heard the noble stories of the Guardians. Lus quickly gave his two fireteam members a light flick on the head, to which both recoiled and chuckled.

"Yep, and now we're best friends! And enemies." Lus added, chuckling at his comrades' reaction. "Anyways, back to the Cabal. Like I said, they're a brutal empire that never ceases its advance. Their firepower is insane, not to mention their technology and ships. Oddly enough, their previous emperor, Calus, relaxes on a giant planet-eating ship. Which of course, he invited us on board to play games with him, after he got kicked out of the empire because he was too benevolent. Well, death games. Games that are very very deadly. Y'know, saying this aloud makes me sound insane…"

Another Blue Lion named Sylvain ran his hand through his hair and chuckled. "You all could be making up this on the go, and we would be none the wiser."

As if to disprove Sylvain's claim, Chopstick shifted his projection to that of the monolithic Leviathan, Calus' ship.

"And that would be the planet-eating ship…" Lus said as he pointed to the projection, causing students to go agape. Lus smirked as he continued. "They sometimes subjugate other races and oddly enough, Calus sometimes makes them powerful warriors. They rank just below the Vex on average."

Several students nodded at this, some even took notes. Lus nodded to Chopstick as the Ghost displayed a projection of a horde of the vile Hive.

"And above the Vex, we have the Hive. They're a vile race that follows a philosophy known as the Sword Logic. It dictates that if you die, you did not deserve to live in the first place. Only the strong can survive."

"That's…" Dimitri began as he looked on in a stupor. "Unbelievable, and brutal…"

Jose nodded as he gave a further explanation. "Yep. It tries to justify itself by saying that you're a blade, being sharpened by killing others. The sharper blade wins, essentially."

While many students once again gazed upon the projection and the Guardians explaining with awe, Felix of the Blue Lion house looked on with odd intrigue. At the same time, Edelgard and Hubert seemed to be contemplating this philosophy. The princess of Adrestia did not look up but did voice her thoughts on the matter.

"While the overall philosophy is brutal and disgusting, it is an unfortunate truth of this world that the strong survive while the weak die out…"

Dimitri turned to her fellow house leader, somewhat ashamed by her comment.

"That doesn't make it any less horrid or wrong..." He retorted, furrowing his eyebrows at Edelgard. Lus grimly nodded understandingly at both of them.

"While she does have a point, Your Highness, that is exactly why the strong must help the weak." Lus said, resting his hand on Dimitri's shoulder, who looked upon the Titan in awe before he nodded and gently smiled. Jose rested his hand on his palm, joining in on the conversation.

"Besides, it's really funny when you use their logic against them."

"Not to mention, it has one major flaw in its logic. You need to constantly kill, lest your existence fail to have its own right. And you must kill more and more as time goes on."

"That's kinda what happened with Oryx, right?" Jose asked, raising his hand to his comrade.

"In a way I guess..." Lus nodded. "Oryx was a god of the Hive. One benefit of following the Sword Logic is that if you kill enough, your blade will be sharp enough to cut through planes and dimensions. Oryx was one such. He slew millions of races and species and conquered countless planets. He also had the ability to "take" which leads me to the final race we face. The Taken." Jose raised a finger and interjected quickly.

"What about the Scorn?" Jose asked, tilting his head to look at the Titan.

"Eh, they're just discount Eliksni. The Scorn are a race of former Eliksni that were raised from the dead. However, at the moment, they're around the bottom of our threat list. Anyways, back to the taken. Essentially, Oryx would subjugate soldiers from the Eliksni, Cabal, Vex, and Hive and corrupt them beyond all reason. The only semblance of you that remains is your body, and even that becomes twisted and corrupted."

"How...terrible. Their own god would do that to their people?" Mercedes asked, the horror on her face obvious.

"Well, yea...in a way, they were more willing than the others. Their lifestyle is built on violence and killing, so in a strange, twisted way...you could say it was a kind gesture. Eventually, however, five others and I were able to topple Oryx. However, even now, Taken live on and continue to make problems for us. Not to mention his sisters are a pain to deal with too. They're known as Savathun and Xivu Arath. Whereas Oryx's specialty was curiosity and exploring, Savanthun's is cunning and deception. Xivu Arath on the other hand specializes in war. Currently, both of them are basically at war against us."

Dimitri was surprised by this remark. "That would mean you all need to return soon right? Especially against opponents of that caliber…"

Lus shrugged. "Ordinarily I'd agree, but at the current moment, we have no way of getting back."

"Besides, in case the Vex show up again we'll need to be here to stop them. And knowing the Vex, they will." Moa added as she nodded.

"Plus, there are other fireteams that are more than capable of holding their own and defending the City." Lus completed as he sat down back in his chair, his presentation finished. The cafeteria erupted with sounds of awe, fear, mystery, and wonder as they absorbed the information they were given.

"You all are truly amazing! I'd never thought I'd be meeting visitors from another world…" Dimitri said, smiling at the fireteam.

"Indeed," Edelgard said as she nodded. "but what of you all? I'd like to learn more about Guardians. Clearly, there must be something special about you to fight these...things."

"Well..." Lus started."We're warriors that protect the Last City, at least in our world. I'm a Titan, Jose's a Warlock, Moa's a Hunter. Our Ghosts basically offer support if we need it. I believe they'd be something like a retainer in this world."

This answer only increased Edelgard's curiosity. "And what of your...magic? How are you able to form weapons and constructs like that?"

"Well, it depends on the class. Our abilities are far more than supernatural, to say the least." Lus said, trying to give the most passive answer possible.

"Intriguing…" Edelgard mused to herself. "I wish to learn to do the same. Perhaps you all could instruct the students here on your magic?"

"Well...that's stepping into the territory of information that should be kept secret. We won't be teaching how to use the l-our magic any time soon, unfortunately." Lus shook his head, causing Edelgard's eyebrow to raise, Dimitri to nod understandingly, and Claude to smirk. "Anyways, I think that's enough storytelling for tonight." Lus said, in an attempt to distance himself from the interrogation. "Let's celebrate our victory and life! To...uh...Garreg-Mach!"

The cafeteria let out a resounding cheer.

"TO GARREG-MACH!"

* * *

Fireteam Tengoku had finally landed in the snowy Tower, which was adorned by decorations of The Dawning. Ginzo had continuously bantered with his friends, even while they were riding here. Leona and Anan had begun to walk towards their respective responsibilities, with Ginzo continuing his antics over comms.

"Ooh, Anan! Did I tell you about that time me and Leona were on a mission in the EDZ?" Ginzo started, causing Leona to roll her brown eyes. "I just left her there. I didn't hear from her for like three days. She was pissed as hell when she saw me next though."

"Ginzo, you hear that? It's the sound of you shutting the hell up." Leona said, the anger in her voice far more than palpable.

"Ay, chill, chill. I'm only messing with you cause I got stuff to do later." Ginzo shrugged on his end while Leona growled and walked onto the lift that descended down into the City.

"Then go do that stuff now." Anan came, the ice in his voice being crystal clear.

"Alright, alright, fine. Fortune, tell Drifter he better have my Glimmer or I'm gonna turn into the second man with the Golden Gun."

Leona sighed as she arrived down at the base of the new Tower. Next to her, a flying carcass of a random Warlock slammed into the ground. After Leona stepped over the body, she summoned her Sparrow and began to speed off through the streets of the City to her destination, waving to those that recognized her. Meanwhile, Anan simply walked and tried to avoid the eyes of fans who would've been all to eager to see him. Ginzo was making his way through the Tower, to the Annex to meet everyone's favorite scammer.

Leona passed by a bar with several broadcasts of a neck and neck Trials of Osiris match, ignoring the cries of the citizens inside watching their favorite Guardians kill or be killed. She inhaled the aroma of ramen coming from a nearby stand, making a mental note to grab a bowl on her way back. She ignored the snow accumulating on her visor, choosing to wipe it off later. Finally, she rounded a corner into a tight alleyway, which forced her to get on foot. She walked through the alleyway to an open area with several brutalist buildings, walking to the one in the back corner with its lights on. She knocked on the door and waited. She heard movement, laughter, playful screaming, and the cheerful voices of children coming from inside, causing her to smile. As she removed her helmet, the door opened, and she was greeted by an older woman wearing an apron who smiled at the Guardian

"Leona! It's good to see you. Everyone, come over here and say hi to Leona!" The woman said as she turned to look inside. "Come on in, sweetie." The woman smiled as she opened the door further.

"Thanks, Maria." Leona spoke, her short black hair reflecting the warm lighting from inside, as well as the dark night sky from outside, which accentuated her sharp features. Leona kneeled as she saw several children run towards her, with Leona extended her arms out as wide as possible to give the approaching youths a warm hug. As she wrapped the younger ones in a warm embrace, three older kids walked to greet Leona as well. "How is everyone?" The younger kids all answered eagerly in different ways.

"We're good!"

"I'm hungry!"

"I'm great!"

"Yeah!"

Leona couldn't help but smile widely at the kids' eagerness. She rose to greet the older youths, all of whom approached Leona for a hug.

"Do you have time for dinner? I made beef stew." Maria asked, smiling at the Titaness, who looked at her and returned a warm smile.

"That sounds great."

* * *

After the feast, the three Guardians managed to make it to Lus' new room, somehow avoiding the crowds by using Moa's vanish grenade. As many questions as they had answered, they still had several of their own.

"So...any luck with the Vanguard?" Lus asked over comms, as he sat in a chair in front of a desk.

"Nada." Chopstick replied. "And we still don't know how or even if we can get back."

"If I had to guess, we'd probably have to use Vex shenanigans." Jose surmised, leaning against the wall. "Not to mention we still need to figure out what they want or what they're doing here."

"Exactly," Hornet said, appearing over Moa who sat on the bed. "They probably won't stop their attacks because of one failure."

"I don't know if you guys read the notes Cinnamon gave you, but when he and I were in the library, we learned a decent amount about this world. Apparently there's these things called Crests and Heroes' Relics. Crests are kinda like special things passed by blood that give you affinity to enhanced abilities, and they allow you to wield Heroes' Relics." Lus said, resting his head on his fist as he thought.

"So I'm guessing the Vex want the Crests and Relics then?" Moa asked as she laid back into the bed. "I guess that makes sense...but then how do we stop them from getting them? They basically have infinite numbers, so they could just keep marching on."

"They probably are separated, so finding them is definitely something we're gonna have to do...but there's only three of us. We don't have Sparrows nor our ships, so we can't travel and be everywhere at once. The Vex without a doubt are gonna start attacking everywhere on this continent." Jose said, peeking outside the windows to see if anyone was peeking in.

"Off the top of my head…" Lus began. "I can think of two solutions. We either find how and where the Vex are coming through to here, and destroy it, or we find the Relics and destroy them."

"The main problem with the first one is what's stopping them from just building another gate and coming through again?" Hornet asked, as she remained hovering over Moa. The people here could barely survive the Vex we killed today, they won't stand a chance against a continuous flow of Vex."

"We'll most likely need to keep stopping them from our side if we do so…" Cinnamon appeared and spoke, hovering over Lus.

"So our only options are those two or death for this world basically..." Jose said, sighing to himself.

Lus sharply inhaled. "Yeah...either way, when we're done we'll have to keep the Vex from coming through again. For now, we have to learn more about these Relics before we make a decision." Lus said, nodding to Jose's point.

"We have to act fast, as well. I don't know how much time we've been gone in our world, but the sooner we return the better." Cinnamon added, resting between Lus' horns of his helm. All agreed to this, a hint of worry creeping over the humanoids' faces.

Fireteam Noctis had a plan. Now they needed to execute it.

* * *

In an underground city, dark forces were in a state of crisis, dealing with a new foreign object that had somehow rooted itself there. Many footsoldiers were sent to investigate, but none returned. Except one.

A grunt quickly hurried to his leader to update him on the advancement in the situation.

"Lord Thales!" the grunt spoke, quickly kneeling to talk to him.

"Spit it out...what of this tower?" Thales spoke with power, obviously vexed by the new guest that had appeared in Shambhala.

"The tower...our soldiers...they're kneeling to it!"

"I beg your pardon, grunt?" Thales asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's the truth milord! A-and it spoke to me! To all of us!" The grunt said, continuing to kneel but shaking from fear.

"Show me." Was all Thales spoke before the grunt quickly rose and led him through the city to the new object. Thales had expected to see it in the same spot. It was an obelisk of some sort. It even appeared to be organic in nature, with its color and what appeared to be roots coming out of it. However, he was surprised to see his soldiers kneeling to the tower, almost as if in worship. While in a stupor from seeing this, the tower rose, and Thales heard whispers from all around him.

"YOU BURN OFFERINGS; I ACCEPT THEM."


	7. Chapter 7

Lus was dreaming. He was dreaming the dream that all Exo's dreamt. Of the Tower. Of the freezing winds of Europa. Of the Deep Stone Crypt. He was in a blizzard, currently huddled as close as possible to a fire. He wore the same armor set Fireteam Aurora gave to him when they found him newly resurrected. He was alone in this dream. Before she arrived.

Doma.

Lus had thought he lost her in the Red War.

But she was here.

In his dream.

Lus was sure it was Doma. But it was the Doma from that day. Not the Doma from the days of his first fireteam with Leona, Marco, and the others. But the Doma of the day the City fell. He sees her missing arm, ripped off by a Legionary. He sees her cracked chestplate, the design on it unrecognizable. He sees her long brown hair billowing in the wind as it did when she fell off the Tower. He sees all of this and sighs.

"Again? What now?" Lus asks, not moving from his warm spot by the fire.

Doma opened her mouth to speak, but Lus only heard her scream. The same scream he heard as he saw a Legionary crush her head. Lus sighs again, this time almost out of disappointment.

"If you're trying to haunt me, you'll have to do better than that."

Doma once again opened her mouth and screamed. But this time Lus did not sigh. He invited her to sit.

"Take a seat...I could use someone to talk to right now."

Then he awoke.

As Lus sat up and looked through his window, It was dark outside still. Another night, another nightmare.

"Lus, are you okay? Same dream?" Cinnamon asked, the Ghost becoming the only light in the room.

"Yeah...I'm fine. I dealt with it pretty cool if I do say so myself." Lus smirked, but he still felt his Ghost's concern for him. He understood. He laid back in his bed as he stared at the ceiling for a while. No matter how much time passed, it was all there.

The sadness...

The regret...

The anger...

The pain...

It never left him. He remembers it all so vividly. Seeing his friends be killed in front of him. The emotions never got any less potent or went away. He just learned how to deal with it. Lus didn't know what his dream meant. Perhaps it was simply the universe's idea of a sick joke. He had experienced this dream several times now, getting used to the torment of his fallen comrades to the point where it has nearly become a routine for him. Sometimes he watched his comrades fall from the tower the Exos dream about. Sometimes he reached out to touch them before they faded away into dust. Sometimes he would even kill them himself. Lus used to cry often, with no tears falling from his face. Now, he almost is apathetic towards his dreams.

After a long period of silence, Lus sat up from his bed and looked out the window. He saw that the sun was beginning to rise, with the only light being the Gray and Pink skies. With a sigh, Lus rose from the bed, causing Cinnamon to appear.

"Wanna go for a walk?" The Titan asked, attempting to occupy his mind.

"Of course." Cinnamon replied gently. Even though the two couldn't emote well, they felt each other smile.

* * *

"So, anything interesting happen to you guys this week?"

Leona was currently sitting at the end of the dinner table in Sunrise Orphanage. She often had visited to give the kids a spark of hope, and a hero to look up to. For her, it gave her the benefit of having something tangible to defend. Maria looked up from her food and smiled at Leona, gesturing with her hands as she answered Leona's question.

"Ah, well, the usual. We did have fun putting up decorations for the Dawning though!"

A young redheaded girl, Mia, who was seven years of age, piped up from her seat that was far too big for her. "We made snowflakes!"

Leona smiled back at her. "Ah, wow! That's awesome!"

An older child, Isaac, this one in his eleventh year of life, with an unruly head of black hair, looked to Leona with questioning eyes. "Hey, Leona. I heard from one of my friends that in a book he read, they would decorate trees and place presents under it for elves and a man named Satan. Is that true?"

A girl who had her brown hair up in a ponytail, Sarah, who was also eleven, scoffed in disbelief. "Of course not. Why would they place presents when someone can steal it?"

"Well…" Leona began "that's kinda right. Based on what Ori and I know, they did decorate trees and place presents under it, but I don't think it was for elves or a man named Satan. Speaking of presents, Ori, would you please transmat them in?"

Ori appeared and tilted his August shell to nod at Leona. "As you wish, Leona." With this, he transmitted several gifts in the room over, causing Leona to give a proud smile.

"When you guys are done, there are presents for you in the living room. There are two for everyone, and they have your names on it, so don't fight over them please."

The kids all gave a quick "We won't" before the younger ones began to giggle with excitement and ran off to inspect the gifts. The older ones followed, after putting the younger kids' and their own dishes in the sink of the nearby kitchen. Leona basked in the joy of the youths. She always knew what was at stake every time she went out, but seeing it in person made her feel more accomplished.

This is what she fights for.

* * *

"Ugh…"

Moa groaned as she rolled over in her bed. Meanwhile Hornet was functioning as an alarm clock in order to wake Moa from her slumber, beeping and bumping into her Guardian several times.

"Moa wake up...it's already 10."

"Five more minutes…" Moa said, shifting to sleep face down as to not see the light creeping into her room.

"You said that thirty minutes ago, it's time to wake up!"

"Fine…" With some rustling, Moa rolls out of her bed, and with a thud, she hits the ground. Moa slowly and sheepishly stands up, stretching out her limbs while squinting her eyes so she wasn't blinded by the light. With a yawn, she walked over to a mirror and messed with her hair to make it look presentable. Immediately after she was finished, she picked up an Engram and had it transform into Moa's armor. She sighed as she donned the gear and turned to head towards the door. As the Hunter stepped outside, she saw relatively few people out, but as she began to walk into the path, some eager people spotted her and began to follow her. Ignoring them, Moa turned on her comms.

"Mornin'! Where are you guys?" She asked, walking past a knight and an Orange-haired student.

"Well, I'm in the training grounds...I think...but there's a lot of students and knights here who want to spar with me." Lus said, almost cautiously.

"I'm in the marketplace right now. Honestly it's kinda cool. Of course, nothing here is really worth my time though."

Sighing to herself, Moa mumbled "I guess I'll walk around…Any update on contacting the Vanguard?"

"Nope!" Chopstick said a little too eagerly. "But on the bright side there's I haven't picked up any more Vex signals."

"Well...that's good I guess…" Moa muttered as she began to explore the monastery.

Lus was in the training grounds nervously trying to calm the crowd that had formed around him. Many eager students were asking him to teach them or for him to spar with them. Eventually tired of the noise, he slammed his hands together with a thunderous clap, silencing the crowd.

"Sorry about the noise, but one at a time please...besides, I'm not really someone you want to spar with…" Lus said, before Dimitri and the rest of the boys from the Blue Lions caught his eyes. The boy who Lus recognized as Felix from last night walked over to the Titan and spoke to him, almost ignoring the crowd.

"Care to train with us?" The boy asked, not paying any mind to the angry eyes of the other students and knights.

"Felix, I don't know if that's such a good idea…" Lus spoke, sheepishly scratching the back of his head.

"Training with the Boar Prince and the others bores me. But you seem to be an interesting adversary."

Lus sighed. "Felix, are you sure?"

"Yes. Now come on, the others are waiting for us." Felix said, leading Lus to the Blue Lion boys. Lus turns to the angry mob and tries to reassure them.

"Hey, listen...form into groups of four and make a queue, I'll spar with you all in time…" Lus said, causing the crowd to cheer and scramble to make groups. Meanwhile, as Lus arrived at his current sparring group, he realized his armor gave him an instant win condition.

"Dedue, do you have any spare uniforms I can borrow?" Lus asked of the only student who's uniform could possibly fit the Titan's build.

"I have one. Shall I go fetch it?"

"I mean, I can go get it if you want to warm up and stuff…"

"No need. I shall go." Dedue concisely stated as he turned and left the training ground.

"O...kay…" Lus said as he walked over to the wooden sword rack, causing Felix to do the same while Dimitri and Sylvain grabbed practice spears. Meanwhile over comms Cinnamon was conversing with Lus.

"Lus, I really think this is a bad idea...you're gonna have to really hold back…"

"Knowing teens, they wouldn't stop asking until I said yes." Lus replied, inspecting his sword. Suddenly Dimitri approached Lus.

"Lus, I'm curious about your magic and weapons you used when you saved us. What are they like?"

"Cinnamon, get ready to explain a gun…" Lus said over comms as he turned to the eager prince.

"Well, my magic is a bit hard to explain, so I'll do so when Jose and Moa are here. My weapons on the other hand are still pretty difficult to explain, but I can do it. Take a look at my sword for example." Lus remarked as he brandished The Lament, causing all in the training ground to look on with awe.

"Incredible...I've never seen a sword quite like that!" Dimitri brightly said as he inspected Lus' gargantuan blade.

"Can I try it?" A surprisingly curious Felix asked.

"I don't know, it's very heavy…" Lus stated, holding the weapon by it's handle as Felix also placed his hands on it.

"I'm gonna let go now, alright?" Lus spoke, looking onto Felix as he nodded at the Titan. As soon as Lus let go of the handle, the blade crashed to the ground of the training area with a thunderous clang.

"How do you even lift this thing?" Felix interrogated, his voice strained as his arms were shaking attempting to lift the beast of a sword off the ground.

"Here, let me try…" Dimitri said, attempting to lift the sword off the ground. Lus was surprised when he saw the sword lift minimally for a fraction of a second before it hit the ground again. "My... that's quite heavy! You are abnormally strong Lus!"

"He's far more than abnormally strong, Your Highness." Sylvain chuckled.

Finally, Dedue returned with his spare uniform, causing Lus to exit the training grounds, only to reappear in a tightly fitting Garreg-Mach uniform.

"Well...it's better than nothing." Lus stated as he walked over to the sparring area.

As the Blue Lion boys got into position, they surrounded Lus, who had his back to the wall.

"I'm ready when you guys are…" Lus said, holding his sword over his shoulder.

For a few moments, silence passed. Then Sylvain and Dedue rushed Lus, both coming at him from an angle. Lus took a step back and got into a wider stance, before slamming the ground with his lead foot in order to create a minuscule brief earthquake, but intense enough to temporarily shake the footing of Sylvain, whom Lus quickly rushed and placed a leg behind, pushing him over using his own legs as a fulcrum. Lus quickly spun to face the next closest opponent, Felix, who immediately rushed and swung overhead at Lus. Lus deflected the swing with his own, before grabbing Felix's hands gently and helping him to the ground. Next, Dimitri stabbed at Lus, causing Lus to have to sidestep in order to avoid it, then Dedue rushed once again with his ax, which Lus blocked once again with the blade of his sword before grabbing Dedue's uniform and lifting him above his head, before setting him down on his back gently. Dimitri once again rushed Lus with a spear thrust, causing Lus to roll out of the way and kick the shaft, throwing Dimitri off balance. Lus then took the opportunity to help Dimitri to the ground as well, resulting in a victory for Lus.

"Not bad...You guys actually surprised me with how good you are!" Lus said, starting to help his opponents up. While they couldn't be compared to Guardians in the slightest, the amount Lus had to hold back gave him a slight challenge, since he was not used to sword and shield combat.

"I expected nothing less!" Dimitri laughed as he was helped up.

"Now…who's next?" Lus asked, smirking to the crowd.

"Titan Lus."

Seteth stepped into the entrance training grounds, his eyes set on the Titan.

"The Archbishop wishes to speak to Fireteam Noctis. Do not keep her waiting." Without another word, Seteth turned and left the entryway, as he returned to wherever he came from.

"Well...sorry everyone, but duty calls I guess!" Lus said, scratching his head. The crowd groaned in disappointment, before they either left the training grounds or found other partners to spar with. Meanwhile, Lus updated the team over comms.

"So, Rhea wants to meet with us again. Not a clue why, but I'd imagine it's decently important."

"Again? What does she want from us this time?" Chopstick asked over comms as he and Jose began to leave the marketplace.

"Who knows...see you guys there I guess." Lus replied, as he left the training grounds.

With a little help from Cinnamon, Lus was able to find his way back to the Archbishop's throne. He was surprised to see someone with Blue hair there, who had already begun to converse with the Archbishop. Lus recognized them from the feast, but he did not get a chance to catch their name. Soon enough, Moa arrived not long after he did, with Jose taking significantly longer to arrive. Lady Rhea smiled at the Guardians when they became a full unit.

"Greetings Fireteam Noctis. I do hope you all enjoyed the feast, and were able to rest well."

"We did." Lus replied. "Thank you once again for allowing us to stay here while we get our bearings."

"Of course." Lady Rhea smiled at the Guardians. "It is the least we can do to thank you for saving us. Now, I have called you all to request your assistance and protection for a mission. Professor Byleth's class, the Blue Lions, are to dispose of bandits causing trouble during the next moon. I ask that you would be there in order to support these students, and protect them if more of the Vex appear. In addition to this, I ask that you would also assist the Black Eagles and the Golden Deer with their missions as well. "

This intrigued the fireteam. The Guardians thought that some students they saw couldn't be older than fifteen. Sending them off to fight in a life or death situation seemed strange. Moa voiced her concerns over comms.

"I can't be the only one who sees something wrong with that, right? I mean, the students have training and all, but still...some of them are so young…"

"Yeah...that seems especially dangerous given that the students could very well die somewhat easily on the mission. Let alone what killing someone will do to their minds…" Lus replied.

Jose finally chimed in his thoughts over comms. "I'm just gonna be blunt about it. This seems really strange to me." Jose then turned his eyes to Rhea and Seteth.

"I'm sorry, but aren't these students a little young to be sending after bandits? From what I saw last night, a good amount of students can't be older than fifteen."

"Your concern is greatly appreciated, but I assure you the students have trained well. Furthermore, in the event that something goes wrong, you and the knights would be there to assist." Rhea said as she gave her trademark gentle smile.

"Of course…" Lus began "but still, killing people...that can seriously traumatize someone."

Seteth folded his arms. "I assure you, the students here are prepared for the consequences. This is the Officer's Academy after all." Seteth sternly said, as he dissected the fireteam with his eyes. "I will provide you with more details of the mission when the deadline is closer. Understood?"

Lus begrudgingly nodded, but he felt irked at Seteth's holier-than-thou attitude. Lus reactivated his comms as he and his allies began to depart from the chamber.

"This still seems twisted to me...even if they've trained, a lot of them are still young…"

"Yeah…" Jose agreed. "Doesn't feel right."

"Well, I'm sure they knew what they were signing up for...hopefully...I guess all we can do is be there if they need help." Hornet said, understanding her allies' dismay. "Now, who's going with the students?"

"I think it's best to send one person. If we all went, the Monastery would be left defenseless." Lus added as he and his fireteam descended the steps. "I guess I'll go, since I have bubble and stuff."

"Good point." Cinnamon added.

"In that case, Jose and I will protect the Monastery if need be, but we'll try to find out more about the Relics."

"Sounds like a plan." Jose agreed.

"As always, be on your guard, and talk over comms for the most part. Who knows who might be trying to listen in." Lus added as he and his fireteam split up. As Lus walked outside the hall, several pairs of eyes focused on him as he expected. For the time being, he hoped to familiarize himself with the monastery. Cinnamon had made a map, which Lus used to navigate around. As the Titan walked around outside, he spotted Dimitri, whom Lus approached.

"Your Highness! How are you doing?" Lus said, waving at the prince.

"Ah, Lus! I am doing quite well, thank you. I am still having a bit of a hard time processing the information about the adversaries you face. It is quite a lot after all, so my classmates and I may ask more questions about it. I was also thinking about how my house already has a mission...we've just barely arrived after all. While the mission has nobility to it, there will still almost certainly be a battle. We must steel ourselves for the challenge ahead." Dimitri said, as he put his hand to his chin.

"Indeed. I think I'm going to be there to assist if you guys need it." Lus said, crossing his arms. "...This is gonna sound weird, but how old is your youngest classmate?"

"Oh, that would be Annette and Ashe. They are both sixteen." Dimitri said, gesturing with his hands.

"I see." Lus said, pausing before asking his next question. "Have you...ever killed someone?" Lus asked, tilting his head.

Dimitri paused, before letting out a small sigh. "I...have struck down someone in self-defense, yes."

"Do you think your classmates can do the same?"

"Some of them, namely Felix, Dedue, and probably Ingrid, are prepared to do so. But, I do worry for the others as well. I'm sure when it comes down to it, they'll have no choice but to choose their own life over their enemy."

"I...see. In any case, when the time comes, I'll be there to support you and your class."

"I am glad to hear it!" Dimitri smiled. "With you at our side, I'm sure we'll fare well."

* * *

"Chopstick, is it just me, or does that sword look really anime?"

After a series of wrong turns and bad directions, Jose had found himself in what looked to be a lounge for the Knights of Seiros. There were a few targets for what he assumed to be archery, a fireplace, several large bookcases, and several benches to rest on amongst other things in this area. Jose however, was focused on a woman he recognized as Catherine. At her side, was a sword that had large parrying hooks on it. Even though the blade was currently sheathed, Jose could tell that there was something different about it.

"You think that's a Relic?" Chopstick asked as Jose began to approach Catherine.

"If that isn't I don't know what is. That sword literally looks insane." Jose said. Jose waved to the knight who was currently reading a book. "Excuse me! Catherine right?"

The knight looked to the voice and smiled when she saw it was a Guardian. "That's me! You're...Jose-5 correct?"

"Yes, but please just call me Jose."

"Alright then, Jose it is. What can I help you with Jose?" Catherine asked, resting her hand on her hip.

"I was actually going to ask about your sword. It looks very interesting. Could you tell me more about it?"

"Oh, well this is Thunderbrand. It's the Heroes' Relic of House Charon. It's quite fun to wield."

"Can I hold it?" Jose asked, trying to gain any information he could.

"Uhh, sure…" Catherine said, unsheathing Thunderbrand. "It's pretty heavy, so be careful." she spoke as she handed the weapon with both hands to Jose. Jose however was able to hold it without much difficulty, due to him holding much heavier weapons before. It was here that Jose was able to get a good look at the weapon. It appeared to be made out of bone, which caused a thought of it being Ahamkara bone to race through Jose and Chopstick's minds. Chopstick appeared and discreetly scanned the weapon before disappearing back into Jose's body.

"Well, it's definitely made of bone...just not Ahamkara bone...or actually...I can't tell…" Chopstick said from the inside of Jose, mentally inspecting his scan of the blade.

Jose handed the sword back to Catherine who put it back in its sheath. "I gotta admit, that's a pretty cool sword!"

"Sure is! It's what gave me my nickname as well! Thunder Catherine!" Catherine brightly smiled at the Guardian.

"Ah, really? That's cool!" Jose nodded. He then switched to speak with Chopstick relatively privately.

"You need a Crest to wield a Relic right?" He asked, nodding on the outside to a story Catherine was telling.

"Well, that's what the information Chopstick gave us said. Why? What're you planning to do?"

"I'm gonna try to learn more about her and her Crest. We'll see if that gives us any clues." Jose replied, before laughing at a joke Catherine told.

"And how're you gonna do that?" Chopstick asked, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Just watch. Did they have dinner dates here? Or lunch? Ah...maybe tea. I don't know."

"You're gonna ask her on a date?"

"An information date. Nothing special." Jose said, nodding as Catherine began to finish her story. He switched to normal speak, before folding his arms.

"Hey, Catherine...would you like to have tea with me?"

* * *

Even though Thales did not show it on his face, he looked around in some form of fear. This thing, this tower. It was speaking to him! Subjugating his soldiers! The nerve! Thales swore he would have the head of whoever was behind this. He would make them pay for this embarrassment and harassment. Thales fearfully looked around again as he heard the same whispers speak to him.

I AM WAR. I AM POWER. I AM DEATH.

"Curse you!" Thales yelled as he unleashed a powerful blast of Dark Magic upon the tower, before ordering several other soldiers to do the same. And yet, the tower stood. Thales' face twisted with anger and confusion.

YOUR FEAR FEEDS ME.

"Who are you? Tell me or I shall tear your head off with my bare hands!" Thales yelled, conjuring another blast of Dark Magic and letting it loose upon the tower.

I AM A BEING BEYOND YOUR UNDERSTANDING.

"Face me you coward! I sha-"

Thales was blown back as he felt a crushing weight descend upon him. His magic disappeared, his body being slammed by the weight he felt. Insurmountable pressure weighed him down. For the first time in an eternity, Thales felt powerless to stop it. He felt darkness encroaching himself and his soldiers, as his vision faded. The last thing Thales saw was a massive being, shattering the ground under its weight, marching towards him.

EMBRACE ME, FOR I AM THE INCARNATION OF WHAT YOU WISH FOR.


	8. Chapter 8

"That was fun! Feel free to invite me again when you like. Bye!"

Catherine rose from her seat and waved at Jose as the Exo did the same. Jose had learned a fair amount about Relics and Crest Stones. Jose was confident that Catherine could handle herself, but he needed to find a way to get the Relic from her in case of a Vex attack.

"Not bad for a first date. She's funny." Chopstick said as Jose put his helmet on to speak over comms.

"Yeah...not my type though. I think Lus is more into girls like her though. Prime example is Leona." Jose said, rising from his seat.

"This channel isn't secure, dumbass." Came a ticked-off Lus appearing on comms.

"Ohhh...yeah my bad."

"Anyways…" Lus began. "What'd you find out?"

"Well, first the Relics are made out of some sort of bone. For a second, Chopstick thought they were Ahamkara, but after comparing it with my helmet, it's not a match. Next, Catherine has the Relic Thunderbrand. Apparently, it's the Relic of House Charon, which leads me to believe it'll be a treasure hunt to find all of the Relics of different houses."

"Double-check to make sure it's not an Ahamkara. I don't want this place to turn into another Dreaming City." Hornet came.

"Already triple checked it." Replied Chopstick. "While they are similar, we didn't hear any whispers from it like other Ahamkara gear."

"Well...that's good. Now about finding the Relics...how are we gonna do that?" Moa replied, sighing on her end.

"About that...apparently students here are of houses that have Relics, not to mention the Crests to wield them. In short, I'm thinking we follow the students to the Relics." Jose replied, walking to his room.

"I don't like the idea of using the students to get to the Relics, but that's probably our best bet for now." Lus said, the hesitation obvious in his voice.

"Problem is…" Jose began. "Do we tell them?"

"Good question. We still don't even know if we need to destroy the Relics or not. I'm not exactly sure how the people of this world would react to that. However, we do need to identify these students."

"I feel that we can probably safely say that Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude all have a Crest. Personally, I don't believe you could inherit a throne without one." Cinnamon said, scanning through the information he found at the library.

"Yeah. We start there, and work our way out." Lus said, agreeing with his Ghost.

* * *

Anan darted behind a crowd under the morning sky, wearing his street clothes consisting of a cap, a trenchcoat, and sunglasses so as to not be spotted by any eager fans. He had just finished eating at a local Ramen shop, before departing on his next mission. His target destination was Europa. He and his fireteam had been assigned the mission of finding Fireteam Noctis who had recently gone missing. Suddenly, he heard the telltale sound of Ginzo's thuggish voice come over comms.

"So, why can't the big blue man just tell us what happened?"

Ginzo was currently waiting in the Tower courtyard for his allies to head to orbit. Commander Zavala had requested Fireteam Tengoku to investigate the recent disappearance of Fireteam Noctis. Fireteam Noctis was not a team of newbies by any means, thus the sudden mystery of them took many by surprise, Tengoku especially.

"He did. That's why we're getting ready to head out. He says he'll give us a full explanation when we're there." Leona said, quickly peeking inside the orphanage to wave goodbye. "Judging by his tone, he wants us to get them back as soon as possible."

"I'd like that as well." Anan said, begrudgingly waving to a group of fans before his Glaucia donned Anan's armor onto him transmatting to his ship in orbit. "The sooner we retrieve them, the less heartache it is for everyone."

"Well, for once we all agree!" Ginzo smugly said, retrieving his Cloudstrike from the vault. "I had stuff planned here man!"

"Your stuff consists of gambling, shady deals, and drinking and eating all night long."

"Okay..I'll admit...you hit the nail right on the head," Ginzo said, frowning before transmatting to his Black Peregrine. "but that still counts as stuff."

"...Anyways, fireteams don't disappear on their own, so expect some esoteric Vex activity there." Anan said as he and Ginzo waited for Leona to appear in orbit.

"So...you guys ready to save Noctis again?" Leona asked, her ship finally appearing.

"Don't have a choice. Let's go."

* * *

"Professor!"

Byleth turned around to see Dimitri approach him. The Blue Lion House had been preparing to go on their first mission. Byleth was sure that they would prevail, but that wasn't to say he didn't have his doubts.

"I've received word that the bandits have been rounded up. We will head out to Zanado soon."

Byleth nodded at this. "Good to know."

"Professor, are you nervous?"

Byleth nodded. "A little. Everyone seems really excited."

"Perhaps we are overconfident." Dimitri nodded in return. "But with you and Lus at our side, I'm sure we'll prevail."

Lus, who heard his name and was also in the area, approached the two and inquired on their conditions. "Are you all ready to head out?"

"We are. Excuse my childishness, Lus, but I am excited to see you fight up close." Dimitri smiled at the Titan.

"Perhaps you will. I'll be holding off unless you guys need help, however."

"I see." Dimitri replied, almost frowning. "In any case, I'd say it's about time we depart."

"Agreed." Lus and Byleth said, nodding.

* * *

"So...this is the Red Canyon..."

Dimitri and the rest of the Blue Lion house had finally arrived at Zanado, the soon-to-be battlefield for the mission of the Blue Lion house. Close behind them, Lus followed the group, waiting on standby in the event he was needed, with the Knights of Serios doing the same. Across the battlefield, a startled bandit ran to the leader of their group.

"Boss! They chased us all the way here! We should run!"

The leader of the bandits, Kostas, would have slapped the grunt if he wasn't holding a weapon.

"Where would we even go? You can't be a thief if you fear death!"

On the Blue Lions side of the battlefield, Cinnamon told Lus something over comms, causing Lus to call the house over for a strategy meeting.

"Students, I've scanned the battlefield and found that you can use a road to the west to flank the opponents. You should use that to your advantage once you cross the bridge."

Byleth and the rest of the class nodded at this, with all saying "Understood", "Got it," or "Good idea". Byleth began to tell his students how to position themselves before they moved out, with him and Dimitri leading the group. Alongside them in the front, were Ingrid and Sylvain, with Felix and Dedue close behind them covering their flanks. Ashe, Mercedes, and Annette made up the rear guard, with Lus watching from afar, holding his Trustee Scout Rifle.

The bandits as well began their advance, moving forward to confront the students. One bandit attempted to attack Dimitri first, rushing him with his sword. Dimitri quickly stabbed the bandit, tearing a hole in his chest before ripping his spear out and knocking him to the ground with the shaft of the spear, once again stabbing the bandit's chest. Another bandit rushed him but was stopped by Byleth, who quickly cut down the bandit before any damage could be done.

Felix ran to meet a bandit who charged with his sword. Felix rolled to the side, looked for a weak point, and dashed forward to cut the bandit's side. The bandit fell to the ground, allowing Felix to raise his blade and plunge it into the bandit. Byleth scanned the field to see if any more bandits were approaching before he gave the sign for the house to advance.

"I know they are just bandits, but still...this never gets easier for me." Dimitri sighed as he pushed on behind the professor, earning an understanding nod from Byleth.

Once the team had crossed the bridge, more bandits rushed the students. Ingrid swept the legs of one using her spear before stabbing it into the bandit's abdomen. Nearby, Sylvain slashed a bandit's chest and did the same, stabbing the bandit standing up instead of on the ground. Behind them in the rear guard, Ashe unloaded two arrows into a bandit attempting to attack Dedue, who was already holding off two others. As the bandit fell to the ground lifeless, Ashe's eyes shook before he turned his gaze upon the ground.

"If...If I had hesitated…" Ashe started. "It would've been me…or someone else…"

"Ashe! Look out!" Came the panicked voice of Annette, attempting to blast a bandit charging Ashe with magic. The bandit was already upon Ashe, however, readying their blade for a slash. Before it could be carried out, an orange bolt struck the bandit's head, sending him to the ground rapidly.

"Ashe, are you alright?" Lus shouted, rushing over to check on the boy from his position in the rear guard.

"I am…" Ashe nodded, turning to help his comrades.

Lus followed behind the student as they ran to meet the rest of the group. Over comms, Lus conversed with Cinnamon.

"Ashe was definitely little shaken up…but he looks determined enough to continue..." Lus said, scanning to see if any students needed assistance.

"Definitely...I'd also wager that the Archbishop and Seteth would want the students to have experience." Cinnamon stated, with reluctance in his voice.

"I hate that you're right…" Lus replied. He continued to push on behind the students, keeping his Scout Rifle readied in the event that it was needed. Lus pushed on with the group under his watchful eyes.

He wouldn't let a single student fall here.

* * *

"Man! Lee's in a bad mood. Anan! Get her some milk and some cookies!"

Fireteam Tengoku had finally landed on Europa. Leona and Anan had begun to summon their sparrows, with Ginzo following close behind them. Leona's face couldn't be seen under her helmet, but her anger could be felt nonetheless.

"Hey, I'm only messing with you cause I gotta be quiet when the big blue man starts talking." Ginzo shrugged as Leona growled. Anan on the other hand was doing his best to tune out any and all outside sounds. As the team sped off to the Glassway, Zavala's voice came over comms.

"You're there...good. Half a day ago, we lost contact with Fireteam Noctis. They were investigating Vex activity in the Glassway. According to Lus' ghost, the Vex were stopping on Europa before going to another place. Your job is to investigate and save Fireteam Noctis if necessary. If Fireteam Noctis is lost, the blow to the City's defenses may be irreparable. Be careful, Tengoku."

"Understood." Came Leona as she turned off her comms.

"Do you think they're okay?" Fortune, the ghost of Ginzo asked, as Ginzo launched his sparrow off a nearby ice ramp and did acrobatics while airborne

"Probably not. Cause I get the feeling they're the type of gang to mess things up pretty easily."

"Hopefully they're returning so we can be finished. This mission is already interfering with my schedule." Anan brusquely replied.

"I'm not picking up a lot of Vex...if we hurry, we can still make it to your next shoot, Anan." Glaucia came over comms as she and her Guardian began to lead the group of Sparrows as the fireteam began to enter the Nexus.

The team continued on, going as far as their Sparrows would take them. As the team went deeper, Ori scanned the area, attempting to see if he could pick up the lost fireteam.

"I have received no results on Fireteam Noctis from my attempted scans. I have confirmed that they have come through here, however, based on the remnants of Light around. Furthermore, I am getting a strange reading from the Vex portal. I am unable to obtain the location of where it leads."

As Ori said this, the team was intrigued. How could Ori, of all ghosts, not be able to find out where it leads?

"Same here. I'm getting nothing." Came the voice of Fortune in an energetic voice unfitting of their current situation.

"Here, lemme try this..." Ginzo said as he fell to the ground and reclined against a nearby ice wall. "Ayo Fireteam Noctis, you there?"

After a long period of silence, Ginzo shrugged. "Welp, I tried."

Sighing, Leona began to trudge on deeper into the cave. "Let's hurry this up and find them."

* * *

"Damn brats! You're all gonna die!"

Kostas ran forward to confront Dimitri, rushing in with his sword. Dimitri narrowed his eyes before stabbing his spear forward, penetrating Kostas.

"Sorry, but you're the one who shall die here." Dimitri said, using the spear to throw the body of Kostas to the ground, before finishing the bandit leader off by piercing his heart. With a sigh, Dimitri stood his spear upright and turned to his allies.

"That's the last of them. You were an exceptional leader, professor. Not to mention, without the assistance of Lus, some of us may have been gravely injured."

Byleth gave a small smile before nodding at his student. "You all did well. I'm proud."

Dimitri smiled at the praise given to him. "Thank you, professor. I'm sure the others will be happy to hear it."

Meanwhile, Lus and Cinnamon were relieved to see that their mission had been accomplished with no casualties.

"Hey, at least no one got hurt." Cinnamon said.

"Yeah, the students actually fought better than I expected."

Lus looked up to see Dimitri walking towards him. Lus gave a wave as the blond student drew closer.

"Lus," Dimitri began, "thank you for your assistance today."

Lus dismissively waved. "Ah, I basically did nothing. You guys deserve all the praise."

"Please," Dimitri nearly scoffed, "do not sell yourself short. Being there to offer advice is a great service to those who need it."

Lus nodded "Yea, guess so." Standing up straight, he stretched out. "Anyways, I think it's about time we head back, we should go before it gets too late."

Dimitri smiled.

"Indeed."

* * *

"Get out of my way…"

Anan scoffed before obliterating a Minotaur with a miniature supernova, sending it spiraling into the infinite. As the rest of Tengoku slew a few Vex loners who were guarding the entrance to the Glassway, the team began to check for any signs of Fireteam Noctis. Apart from Vex bodies, none were found.

"The hell? This doesn't make sense." Leona said, looking around as she approached the massive Vex gate. "You don't think they went in, right?" Leona asked, turning to her comrades.

"Nah they definitely did. They ain't the type of fireteam to disappear without a trace." Ginzo said, sitting on the cold, metallic body of a Minotaur.

"Glaucia, please let everyone know I will unfortunately have to cancel today." Anan said with a sigh.

"Already done." Glaucia said, appearing to her Guardian and looking at him.

"Ayy big blue!" Ginzo said over comms, standing up off the Minotaur's carcass.

With a disappointed and annoyed sigh, the commander came over comms. "Yes, Ginzo?"

"We're at the Glassway right now. They ain't here, so we think they went in the portal. We're probably gonna go in, but I just figured I'd let you know cause we might get lost and all that, so we'll be back once we figure a way back. Later blue!" Ginzo said, hopping up and brandishing his Huckleberry. Behind him, Anan holsters his Black Talon, with Leona doing the same to her Hawkmoon.

"Understood. Be careful, Tengoku. We're counting on you." Zavala said, cutting his feed.

"Alright losers, who wants to go in first? I think Kagu should. What do you think, Leona?" Ginzo asked as he and his fireteam neared the portal. Ori activated the portal, and with a roar, the portal came to life. Anan turned to Ginzo and began speaking.

"I beg your pardon? Firstly, we established that I no longer go by that name. Second, don't Hunters have the duty of blazing paths ahead? You may take poin-"

"BITCHGETINTHEPORTAL!" Ginzo said, kicking the Warlock into the Vex gate causing him to disappear. Leona stifled a chuckle before motioning for Ginzo to go into the portal.

"Well, you're next."

"Aww why it gotta be me though?" Ginzo said, turning around to Leona.

"Because you'll probably run off and go gambling if I went in first. Now get in." Leona said, also kicking Ginzo into the portal. As Leona hopped in, she sighed.

"Just another day for Tengoku…"

* * *

Edelgard mused to herself in her room, contemplating the new factors in play. The Guardians said that they don't plan on teaching their magic anytime soon, as it is a closely guarded secret. This put a major block in her plans. She either needed to find a way to get them to join the Empire, or she needed to find a way to effectively disable them. Perhaps that bandit may be able to find out a thing or two. Moreover, if she got them subservient to the Empire, she would have a major advantage against those...fiends.

Edelgard sat down at her desk, pondering the three individuals. First, there was Lus of the Titan class. He appeared to be the most physically strong out of the bunch. Next, there was Jose, who while he was witty and sarcastic, appeared to have strong morals. Moa was the most mature, with her being fairly inquisitive and almost acting like a foil to the others. Then there were their so-called Ghosts. While Lus said they weren't the type most people thought of, they were curious things. They all appeared to have their own personalities as well. However, Lus always referred to his group in thirds, not counting the Ghosts presumably, but why? What was the purpose of them, and were they important?

Edelgard walked outside her dorm and into the walkways of the Monastery. She caught sight of Jose wandering the Monastery and took a plan.

"Excuse me, Jose-5?" Edelgard asked, planting curiosity in her voice.

Jose turned to look at her and waved before walking to meet her. "Oh, Your Highness! I actually was looking for some help. I was wondering if you possessed a Crest? I'm actually really curious about them. Oh and you can just call me Jose"

"Firstly, if I am to call you just Jose, please refer to me as Edelgard. Second, I'd be honored to help you, and I do indeed have a Crest, but you do know there are far more suitable people to teach you about such things correct? For example, Professor Hanneman is an expert on Crests." Edelgard said, slightly raising an eyebrow.

"Firstly," Jose began, "I insist. You are royalty after all. Secondly, that may be true, but I also want to get another perspective on different Crests and Relics rather than an expert's." Jose said, folding his arms.

"Very well, in that case, why don't we do it over some tea then? And as a compromise, how about referring to me as Lady Edelgard?" Edelgard replied with a smirk.

"Sounds like a plan." Jose smiled.

* * *

Falling through the sky wasn't something that Leona was necessarily used to, but it didn't scare her one bit. She felt her body crackle with Arc before she blasted to the ground, creating a sizable crater where she landed. Next to her landing, Ginzo was leaning against a tree, and Anan was sitting down, meditating. Rising from the crater, Leona began to look at her surroundings, which consisted of a dense coniferous forest.

"Where are we?" Leona asked no one in particular.

"A place that looks like Earth, but one without the Traveler or the City." Anan said, rising from his meditation.

"Any signs of Noctis yet?"

"Well let's see…" Ginzo began as he stopped leaning against the tree. He switched to an open channel and nearly shouted in it.

"Sup losers! Guess who's here to save your sorry asses and bring y'all home! Where ya at?" Ginzo said, smirking underneath his helmet. A period of silence passed before a response was heard.

"Ginzo?!" The voice of Lus came over comms. "What are you doing here?"

"Did you not hear what I just said? We're saving y'all!" Ginzo said, his thuggish demeanor coming through the comms.

"Well, we're not the ones who need to be saved in this world. We would have returned by now, but we're figuring out what the Vex want here. Well, that and we don't have a way back. And, did you say 'we're'?"

Leona sighed before joining the exchange. "Yes, Lus. All of Tengoku's here."

"Oh...Hi Leona…" Lus sarcastically returned.

"Anyways!" Ginzo smirked. "Give us your coordinates and we'll be with y'all soon."

"Woah woah woah…" Jose said as he appeared on comms. "we don't exactly need help here. If anything, you should return to the City and just say we're alright."

"Didn't Lus just say that you didn't have a way back? How are we supposed to return?" Anan said, scoffing at his fellow Warlock.

"...Good point."

* * *

Moa was currently listening to Hanneman, the resident Crest man according to Claude, give a long speech on the history of Crests. Hornet was recording it all, while Moa tried her best to appear interested and not at all bored. In other events, Fireteam Tengoku showed up out of nowhere, greatly increasing the difficulty of keeping their secrets. Not to mention the inevitable increase of questions that will come their way. As Hanneman finished his speech, Moa nodded, smiled, and exited the room, sighing with relief once she was out of earshot.

"You recorded all of that, right?" Moa asked.

"Of course I did. There was no reason for me not to." Hornet replied as her Guardian headed towards the Archbishop's room.

"Soooo…" Moa began "How do you think introducing Tengoku will go?"

"If it's anything short of chaotic, confusing, and difficult, I will be shocked." Hornet sighed.

"Same," Moa said. "this is gonna be pretty hard. Not to mention explaining things to them."

"Hopefully Lus and Leona don't fight too much…"

"I don't think it'll be that bad…" Moa rebutted. "to be fair, they did work together recently in the Crypt and all."

"I hope you're right…" Hornet added.

"So how do you think talking with the Archbishop will go?"

"Well, you somehow managed to convince a group of bloodthirsty Eliksni to join House Light, so I don't think it can be worse than that." Hornet returned.

After Moa greeted the guards at the door to the Audience Chamber, they opened the door and revealed Lady Rhea inside awaiting.

"Your Grace?" Moa asked as she removed her helmet, bowing to the majesty of Lady Rhea.

The Archbishop turned as she heard the voice of Moa call her title. "Ah, Moa. How may I be of assistance?"

"Moments ago, we heard from allies from our world that they have arrived in this one as well. As with us, for now, they are indefinitely stranded here. I am here to let you know that they are coming, and to ask that you show them the same grace you have shown us."

"Of course." Lady Rhea smiled. "Considering what you have done for us, you needn't ask. Any friend of our saviors is a friend of the Monastery."

"I see. On behalf of my comrades, please accept our gratitude once again. Once they arrive, we shall return here to give you a full introduction."

Rhea smiled "Of course. I eagerly await meeting them."

As Moa bowed once again, she donned her helmet and switched to comms.

"So, good news Tengoku, the Archbishop of the Church of Seiros wants to meet you and she says that you can stay here for the time being."

"Archbishop?" Leona asked over comms. "Who is she? And where is here?"

Suddenly the voice of Chopstick arrived over comms. "Right, so short summary of this world from what we know so far: Some goddess long ago arrived in this world and created it but a dude named Nemesis killed her, causing someone named Seiros to kill Nemesis along with 13 stooges using weapons and special abilities called Relics and Crests. Now we and the Vex are here and we saved a monastery from the Vex and now we're being treated as saviors. We think the Vex are here to steal the Relics and or those bearing Crests. Capeesh?"

"Uhhhhh…" The voice of Leona trailed off as her brain tried to compute the information in error.

"Yeah, gonna be honest, I did not understand one bit of that." Ginzo added.

"I'll send you guys the information that Cinnamon gave us. See you guys when you get here."

Meanwhile, Moa simply sat down on a nearby bench and sighed.

Her job just got harder and harder.

* * *

"So what are these other Guardians like?"

Annette eagerly trailed Lus as the Blue Lions returned to the Monastery. Lus had broken the news that three more Guardians had come to this world, all of them being allies of Fireteam Noctis. This surprised some members of the house, but ultimately had the effect of increasing their curiosity.

"You'll see. They're all very...interesting to say the least."

"How so?" Byleth asked, his curiosity slightly surprising Lus.

"Hmm...well, Leona's a hothead, Anan's a bit of a sadist, and Ginzo is a sly thug, if that helps."

Dimitri gave a slight chuckle at this. "They do indeed sound interesting."

Simultaneously with the conversation, Cinnamon had been scanning the forest surrounding the group to see if he could garner any more information about the age of this world. However, he suddenly felt a dark presence, along with several enemy signals. The signals were unmistakable.

It was the Hive.

"Lus! Hive! On your right!" Cinnamon shouted to his Titan.

"What? Damn it!" The titan spun in response, unholstering his scout rifle, causing the students to stare in surprise. Lus switched off comms briefly to update them on the situation.

"Professor! Take the students and run to the Monastery! Don't try to fight, just run!" Lus yelled, shocking the students.

"What's happening?!" Dimitri asked, looking to Lus for answers.

"The Hive, now go!" Lus said not turning away from the sights of his gun.

Saying nothing more, the students all hurried away from Lus, fear beginning to creep on their faces once again. Lus pushed onwards not far behind them, in an effort to ensure no Hive were able to make it to them. As the students heard the screams of the incoming horde, Lus threw a Glacier Grenade in order to slow any incoming Hive. Lus saw a lone Thrall leap from the forest, attempting to land on him. Lus easily crushed its skull and tossed it aside, before pushing on behind the Blue Lions in order to avoid the incoming onslaught of Thrall, all of which pouring out of the trees like water.

"AWWW SHIT!" Lus cursed while unloading his Scout Rifle into the horde. He switched to comms to inform everyone of the advancement.

"Guys! The Hive are here!"

"What? How?" Jose asked, confusion and worry rising over his face.

"Don't know! Just be ready to defend the Monastery again!" Lus responded, throwing a flaming hammer into the horde causing it to take down a Thrall before chaining lightning to the others.

"Cinnamon! Send us your coordinates, we'll assist!" Leona said, her and Tengoku beginning to run.

Meanwhile, Lus turned to attack another horde of Thrall attempting to ignore him and attack the students. He threw a Duskfield Grenade, sucking the Thrall in, before running in and destroying them with a gauntlet of ice. Almost in an attempt to do the same, a Wizard appeared and covered Lus in a dome of darkness, slowing him. Lus managed to roll out, before switching to his trusty Lament and leaping to shred the Wizard. Lus chucked another Glacier grenade before running to catch up to the students.

Their situation had taken a sudden turn for the absolute worst.


	9. Chapter 9

The Blue Lions hadn't stopped running since the Hive appeared. Swarms and swarms of what appeared to be skeletal creatures poured out of the forest to chase them, only being held off by Lus. Their screams struck fear into the hearts of the students, the sound being the only indication of how far behind the swarm was.

Lus was behind the house, only leaving it briefly in the event that the swarm behind them got too large. The Titan briefly slowed down to place a barricade alongside a wall of ice in order to block incoming shots from Boomers.

"How close are you guys?!" Lus asked over comms while unloading a slug into a Knight's head.

"Just keep running! We'll intercept at the edge of the forest!" Leona replied as she and Tengoku hurried to their meeting point.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jose and Moa had just finished alerting the Monastery to the threat they may soon be facing. The remaining knights at the monastery were on high alert, most fearing for their lives. The knights were told by Jose and Moa to only protect the students and not to engage, which they understood. Many were preparing to evacuate the monastery if need be, with some even prematurely leaving. The monastery had turned from a bustling place to a ghost town. Jose and Moa waited at the gates of the monastery to see if they could catch sight of Lus and the others.

"How do you think the Hive got here?" Moa asked, looking down the scope of her Whisper Of The Worm.

"Some crazy Hive god probably cut through dimensions. Question is who though…" Jose replied, not removing his watchful eyes from the landscape.

"Seeing as Savathun's in hiding, maybe Xivu?"

"Probably…" Jose surmised as he leaned against the wall of the monastery. "But why?"

"Crests and Relics?"

"Don't the Hive already have too many weapons of mass destruction? I mean, a few more couldn't hurt them, but I don't think that's the only thing they want."

"Hmm..." Moa said as she lowered her sniper and thought to herself.

"Mull it over later!" Hornet appeared and said. "I'm picking the Hive chasing them!"

Lus yanked out the magazine from his Trustee before chucking it fast enough to kill a Knight that tried to rush him. As he turned to catch up, he realized he could see the end of the forest. As Lus helped Byleth kill a Thrall that attempted to maul Mercedes, A Knight rushed Lus from behind and knocked him off balance with a mighty swing from its cleaver. As Lus raised his Sentinel Shield to block another swing, he yelled at the house to keep running, assuring them that Moa and Jose would protect them once they left the forest. Lus rolled back and rose before rushing to grab the Knight's forearm and rip it off. He then charged his right leg with lightning and kicked the knight, vaporizing it.

"We're at the end of the forest!" Lus shouted over comms. "Where are you guys?"

As if on cue, Lus saw a flaming Leona fly through the air and unleash a devastating knee on an unsuspecting Knight, sending its carcass flying.

"You're finally here!" Lus yelled, mauling an Acolyte with his shield.

"Yeah, yeah mark me late later!" Leona replied, punching straight through a Knight's core before pulling her arm out and ripping the hole open, tearing the Knight apart.

"Moa, do you see the students yet?" Lus asked, charging towards another group of Hive rushing the pair of Titans.

"Yeah! Jose flying over to bring them back! There's a lot of Thralls on their tails though!" Moa responded, unleashing the fury of Xol upon several lowly Thrall.

Even though the group was running as fast as they physically could, the Thrall behind them were catching up. The students could only think to themselves that they were running faster as she heard the screams of the skeletal creatures behind them. Suddenly the screams stopped, and in place of the screams, they heard what sounded like a small storm.

Ginzo unleashed an utter hell of a storm upon the Hive who dared to draw near the fleeing students. His Cloudstrike fired bolt after bolt, all of which perpetuate the lightning storm on the horde of Thrall. Ginzo stopped peering down Cloudstrike's scope when he saw the discs of flame rain down on the Thrall. He saw Jose join with the group and annihilate any Hive who drew near them. Ginzo briefly turned his gaze and saw a colossal Ogre bending trees and shaking the ground.

"OGRE!" Ginzo shouted as he began to fire his lightning sniper at his new target.

"You can't take care of one Ogre?!" Leona shouted in return, literally blazing two Acolytes with her light.

"No! I mean this one's big and scary! It's like the Ogre on Mars with the spider back!"

"I'll handle it." Anan said sharply, running past Ginzo.

"Don't mess up!" Ginzo quickly said, attempting to find the Ogre's weak spot.

Anan summoned a supernova in his right hand before tossing it at the Ogre's head. To his slight chagrin, it had no visible effect on the colossal monster.

"I see…" Was all he muttered before the Ogre slammed its hand on Anan. When Anan's body was nowhere to be seen, the Ogre became slightly confused, before it felt a blazing sword being driven into the growth on its back. Anan slammed his hand to the Ogre's growth before unleashing a Chaos Reach from point-blank range. The Ogre was greatly angered by this, and attempted to thrash itself in order to toss Anan off, screaming with fury. Anan leaped off, using the momentum from the Ogre to distance himself before launching a gargantuan Nova Bomb onto the Ogre, its seekers detonating with a short delay.

Anan then blasted forward, summoning his Dawnblade before flying up and once again driving it into the Ogre's growth. Anan sent a blast of lightning into the growth from his left hand before he grabbed his sword and used gravity to slash down the growth. The Ogre roar echoed throughout the entire area, its rage becoming obvious. As Anan blinked to the side and attempted to use Chaos Reach once again, the Ogre, along with the rest of the Hive disappeared in a Green mist.

"You messed up!" Ginzo shouted, hurrying over to Anan's position.

"How is that messing up?" Anan asked, scanning the area to see if there were any stragglers.

"You let it get away!" Ginzo shouted, holstering his Cloudstrike.

"We'll deal with it later," Lus said, appearing over comms. "are the students safe?"

"They just got inside the Monastery." Moa replied. "From what I saw there were minor injuries. Good job, Lus. Protecting a bunch of kids isn't easy."

"Those were Xivu Arath's Hive. What's she doing here?" Anan said, beginning to walk alongside Ginzo.

"Probably trying to find the same thing as the Vex…" Ginzo replied, stretching his limbs.

"Indeed. But why would she take them out from the field? Something's off…"

"Things are getting strange around here…" Jose came as he escorted the students to the others still at the monastery.

"Now then...how'd you guys get here?" Lus asked, turning to Leona who released two parts of an Acolyte carcass from her fists.

"We went through the giant Vex portal in the Glassway, same as you guys, I'm assuming."

"You'd be correct." Lus replied, beginning to turn to head towards the monastery. Lus sighed and turned off his comms.

"So…of all the people to save us, we get you guys…"

"That's a shitty way to say thank you…" Leona replied, doing the same.

"Wasn't trying to."

"Whatever. I'll just add it to the list of the times I've saved you."

A period of nothing but the sounds of the ground being trampled by the two Titans passed before anything was said again.

"Isn't that Hawkmoon? You said it broke when the Cabal attacked." Lus asked, side-eyeing Leona's Handcannon.

"It did." She replied.

"So how does it work again?"

"Crow helped." Leona coldly said, her gaze not shifting from straight ahead.

"I...see."

In a manner unfitting of him, Cinnamon appeared between the two Guardians.

"Please don't fight you two…this world has no chance of defending itself besides us. The last thing it needs is you two at each other's throats." the Ghost said, looking at the pair.

"I'll try." was all Leona said. Lus however remained silent, only briefly gazing at his Ghost before Cinnamon disappeared into him.

* * *

"That was the Hive?"

Dimitri's face was that of disgust, due to his thinking of the creatures his house had escaped. According to Lus, they were the Hive. The race that the Guardians said followed a brutal cycle of endless killing. They were also stronger than the Vex, according to the Guardians. Dimitri looked at his house as his Professor went around ensuring everyone was okay. Apart from a few injuries, they had made it out physically safely. However, the mental image of the Hive was forever burned into all of their minds. The tri-eyed monsters were far scarier than the images they were shown.

"Dimitri, are you alright?" Byleth asked, worry washing over his face.

Dimitri nodded. "I'm fine. I was simply thinking about the Hive. They're a gruesome force."

Byleth nodded in return. "Indeed. But I'm sure Fireteam Noctis will prevail."

"I believe so too. Not to mention they'll have the help of the new Guardians as well."

Byleth nodded. Mentally, however, he was conversing with Sothis about these creatures.

"The Hive are a far more formidable foe than I was expecting. Just how do the Guardians survive in their world?"

"They're pretty strong…" Byleth began.

"I know that! But still, it must take immense courage to be able to stand against foes like the Vex and the Hive."

Byleth mentally nodded as he continued to survey around the room. He laid his eyes on Ashe, who looked especially traumatized. As Byleth and Dimitri took the same idea, they approached the boy with a worried look on their faces.

"Ashe, are you alright?" Dimitri asked, showing obvious concern for his classmate.

"Oh! Your Highness! I've...been better. I recently received some terrible news...Lord Lonato, was found dead…"

"That's terrible!" Dimitri said. "This must be horrifying for you, Ashe. If there is anything you need, please allow me to assist you."

"My condolences, Ashe. Take all the time you need." Byleth's face softened as he nodded.

"Thank you, both of you." Ashe said as he attempted a smile. "Still...t-this is complicated. For some reason, Lord Lonato was creating a rebellion against the Church. A-and they found a note on his body stating that they would attempt an assassination against Lady Rhea at the Goddess' Rite of Rebirth."

"I...see." Dimitri solemnly began. "I...assume the knights were sent to deal with him then."

"That's what I thought too...but the knights who found his body said that it was nearly destroyed like it had been eaten or something…" Ashe said, his face adding an expression of disgust.

Dimitri's and Byleth's faces shifted to one of shock and disgust.

"Who could do such a thing?!" Dimitri wondered, covering his mouth with his hand.

"There's more to this that we don't know…" Byleth said, resting his chin on his hand.

"Indeed." Dimitri nodded. "In any case, Ashe, please take all the time you need to rest and recover."

* * *

"What's brown and sticky?"

Ginzo was currently following behind Anan, Leona, and Lus, who in turn were following behind a regiment of Knights of Seiros returning from a mission. Ginzo was slewing pun after pun at them. The victims of Ginzo's antics had already grown far too tired of them, and now it was a matter of how far Ginzo can go.

"I'm not answering that." Leona stated, the annoyance in her voice obvious.

"A stick! C'mon that was easy!" Ginzo laughed, smirking wildly underneath his helmet. "Hey, did you know I'm only friends with 25 letters of the Alphabet?"

Ginzo's audience said nothing, but he continued nonetheless.

"I mean, I think I'm a funny guy, so I don't know Y!" Ginzo managed, a laughing fit nearly overcoming his punchline.

"I dare you to say another…" Leona growled.

"Why couldn't Oryx use his full name on social media?"

"I don't know…" Leona said, her footsteps slowing to catch up with Ginzo.

"Because the username was taken!' Ginzo began to laugh, as they arrived at the front gates of the monastery. Leona quickly turned to Ginzo and patted him on the back.

"I gotta admit, that last one almost got me…" Leona said as she gave a fake smile under her helmet. With a final pat on the back that was more like a slam, Ginzo's body flew to the ground, creating a small crater in the earth.

"I ain't gonna stop!" Ginzo said as he let out a muffled laugh face down, causing Leona to roll her eyes.

"Anyways, where's this Archbishop?" Leona asked, turning to Lus.

"This way." Lus said, walking through the gates which the Knights rose up.

"So this is the monastery..." Anan said as he looked around at the grandeur of the monastery. They had finally arrived after a long walk, the main challenge being Ginzo testing Leona's patience. Anan assumed that the inhabitants of the monastery were not hostile, due to Noctis residing there. However, he made sure to bring his favorite Black Talon in the event it was needed, alongside his Stars In Shadow and Succession. Leona moved closer to Anan, ignoring Ginzo currently rising from his makeshift grave.

"This place is weird. It's almost like we went back in time to way before the Golden Age." Leona said, still looking around.

Anan nodded. "Yeah. But according to Cinnamon's notes, we're in an alternate dimension or universe entirely. I have no idea how or why the light still works here…"

"The light has transcended time and space before. It's why we were able to kill Atheon."

"True…Still though, something is off about this world."

As Ginzo hurried to catch up with the group, he joined comms.

"So…this Archbishop...are they cute?" Ginzo piped in, temporarily ceasing his endless puns.

"She's pretty attractive…" Jose replied, joining the group.

"Please don't try to flirt with her…" Moa joined over comms and in person.

Ignoring the antics, Leona followed her rivals and comrades as she looked around the Monastery.

"So what's the deal with this place?" Leona asked as she returned her gaze forward.

"It's an old monastery, home to the Church of Seiros and the Officer's Academy." Answered Hornet. "Some students here have Crests, and there's at least one Relic here, so we're trying to find them and find a way to monitor them."

"Never thought I'd be in a highschool anime!" Ginzo said, smirking under his helmet.

"Well, this place is pretty anime…" Lus agreed.

After a short moment of more walking, the team of five finally arrived at the Audience Chamber, and laid their eyes upon the Archbishop.

"There she is...Lady Rhea. You should probably take off your helmets and speak to her face to face." Lus said as his team fell behind Tengoku, allowing them to meet the Archbishop.

"Won't she freak out that Anan's an Awoken?" Leona asked, not halting her pace towards the figurehead.

"Nah, she already saw us, so you should be good. Just be sure to bow and all that." Jose answered.

As Fireteam Tengoku removed their helmets and arrived close enough to the Archbishop, deemed so by a figure next to her with Green hair, they began the formalities. Starting with a bow, Anan was the first to introduce himself.

"Greetings. I am Anan Marus." said the first human of Tengoku, his sharp features along with his youthful appearance conflicting with his head of chin-length spiky white hair. His cobalt skin and striking red eyes surprised Rhea and her assistant.

"Leona Ishara, Titan of Fireteam Tengoku. It's an honor to meet someone as high ranking as you." Leona said, her tan skin and Raven-Black hair tied back into a spiky ponytail being visually inspected by Seteth and Rhea who were slightly intimidated by her ferocious features.

"I'm Ginzo Nao, and it sure is a pleasure to be meeting yo fine self!" Said the second human of Tengoku with a smirk. His short light brown hair bobbed as he bowed, only being held up by a Black and White headband. He looked into the eyes of the Archbishop with his own brown pair.

Lus and Jose both stared at the ground in disappointment, with Moa simply facepalming.

"Please refrain from flirting with the Archbishop." The Green-haired companion of the Archbishop added with a stern disapproving look on his face.

"Of course...forgive my comrade." Leona added, kicking Ginzo.

"It is quite alright." Lady Rhea began. "In any case, your allies, Fireteam Noctis, saved our monastery from an attack by the Vex. After seeing what Guardians can do firsthand, it is greatly reassuring that you are all very capable of keeping us safe. It is also very intriguing to see humans from your world as well. Please feel free to remain here for as long as you like."

"Thank you." Leona said as she and her comrades bowed and returned their helmets to their heads.

"That's it?" Ginzo asked over comms. "No terms and conditions or anything like that?"

"Well, we did most of the talking…" Jose returned.

"Before you all leave," Rhea began, halting all but Ginzo who already departed from the chamber. "I have one more thing to ask of you. A minor Lord of the Kingdom of Faerghus is fermenting a rebellion against the Church of Seiros. The Knights of Seiros have already been deployed to deal with them. I am also planning on sending the Blue Lions house as well as the Black Eagles house. I once again ask that you accompany them in order to offer assistance."

"About that..." Lus said, turning to the Archbishop. "With the recent appearance of the Hive, I don't think it's a good idea to continue missions. At the very least, not with students."

"The Hive are a race that literally specializes in death." Anan added. "A single Hive rune that means death can kill hundreds."

"For the time being, I ask that you suspend all missions until the Hive and Vex are sufficiently dealt with." Lus asked, turning to the Archbishop.

"I see. That is unfortunate. Very well, but please do deal with the Hive as quickly as possible." Lady Rhea answered.

Suddenly Catherine walked into the chamber, wearing a puzzled yet terrified look on her face. She walked to meet Lady Rhea before bowing and rising to face her.

"Lady Rhea...we've returned from the battlefield, but...when we got there, Lord Lonato was already dead…"

"How do you mean?" Seteth asked, his face shifting to be shocked.

"Well…when we arrived, we only saw the mangled corpses of Lonato and his soldiers…some were destroyed beyond all recognition...we captured and spoke to a lone survivor. He says that everyone was wiped out by an army of creatures with three glowing eyes…"

When the Guardians heard this, all of their eyes widened in shock. Their situation had somehow gotten even worse.

"Where is he now?" Asked Leona.

"He's in a cell at the moment. I can take you to him if you want." Catherine answered, turning to the Guardians.

Suddenly the frantic voice of Ginzo arose over comms, simultaneous with screams and explosions coming from the monastery grounds.

"ANAN MESSED UP!" Ginzo shouted, firing off three bolts of Arc from his Cloudstrike.

"What?!" Anan answered, both over comms and locally. "What did I do wrong? And where even are you Ginzo?"

"On top of the roof sniping WAY too many Ogres. You guys gotta get out here now, shit's getting real! Ginzo out!"

Lus turned to Lady Rhea, while the rest of the Guardians rushed outside to confront the violence.

"Evacuate the monastery now! The Hive made it inside!" Lus yelled as he ran to help his comrades fight off the incoming onslaught. He heard Seteth yell a confused "What?!" at him, but he ignored it due to the time constraints they had. As Lus made it to the main floor of the monastery grounds, he saw a scene that reminded him of that day.

The day the City fell.

The Hive came in droves like frenzied hornets. Lus quickly shook himself from his shock-filled stupor in order to raise his shield to protect a fleeing Annette from the thunderous blasts of a Boomer Knight. Lus quickly summoned a Hammer of Sol in his right hand, before chucking it at the Knight, purging it. As Annette spotted and called for Felix to hide behind Lus' wide shield, he shifted it to a Ward of Dawn. Lus briefly peeked out the dome and pulled Felix inside, shielding him with his body. When both students were inside, Lus ran out and unleashed the fury of The Lament upon two Knights attempting to rush the bubble.

"She got us!" Anan yelled over comms while unleashing two Nova Bombs upon a crowd of Acolytes. "She made us think we could fall back so she could push in!"

Leona growled in anguish as she turned a corner and saw a human knight shielding a student both perish under the blade of a Swordbearer Knight. "Where do we set an evac point?!" She yelled as she rushed the Hive Knight and tore off its head with her bare hands.

"Well it was gonna be by the stables and carriages but they're on goddamn fire already!" Moa yelled as she leaped in the air before releasing a Shadowshot upon the Thrall below her.

"I'll make one then!" Jose yelled as he took to the skies before releasing a Slova-bomb upon the monastery walls near the greenhouse and dorms, causing it to blast open. He quickly planted a Well of Radiance, before calling over to Claude and Edelgard to hurry to his position. "Lus or Leona, can you get over here and make a bubble quickly?!"

"I'm on it!" Lus said, slicing through a Knight with his sword. He ran back to his bubble containing Felix and Annette, quickly checking to make sure that they're alright.

"We're gonna have to move. We leave when I say go. Whatever you do, stay behind me." Lus said, earning a nod from the two. He switched back to comms to ask a favor.

"Ginzo, gonna need some cover!" He said, waiting while peering out through the purple dome. Once he saw a blue bolt of lightning strike an incoming Knight and create a thunderstorm, he knew it was time.

"GO!" Lus shouted, summoning a shield and using it to block incoming attacks from the Hive, shielding Annette and Felix as they moved to Jose's position.

* * *

Ginzo was firing round after round from his Cloudstrike, raining down lightning upon his foes. Any now-refugees were protected by blue bolts of energy from his sniper. He directed them to the evac point Lus and Jose had set up. Ginzo continued to fire limitless rounds into his foes, creating lightning storms where he struck. It was then that Ginzo saw three figures of interest: the towering Ogre from before, the High Celebrant, and a Pyramid-headed Wizard, the size of which dwarfing any other powerful Wizards he saw before.

"Ayo, big Ogre, Wizard, and High Celebrant are here!" Ginzo shouted over comms as he unloaded into the Ogre's growth on its back.

"A little busy! Keep them off the students!" Lus shouted as he peeked from his Ward of Dawn on the evac point, throwing multiple flaming hammers upon the Hive.

"I'll take on the Wizard! Leona, can you handle the Ogre?" Anan asked.

"Less a matter of 'if' rather than 'when'! I'll handle it!" Leona shouted as she ripped apart a Hive Knight.

"Guess that means Celly's mine!" Ginzo shouted as he changed his target to the Celebrant, holstering his Cloudstrike in favor of cloaking himself and dashing to the massive Knight.

* * *

Jose finished flying Dedue and Mercedes to Lus' bubble, before taking to the skies and relieving some pressure off Lus by raining fire. Jose briefly dipped in the bubble before firing off a blast from his Telesto. Worry began to creep over his face. Lus could only fit so many in his bubble. Even if Leona put a bubble near Lus', there would be no way they could save everyone. But the fact that already so many had died, began to chip away at his mental fortitude.

"Moa! Can you help us over here?" Jose asked, collapsing his sword into a Nova Bomb and dunking it into the ground.

"Way ahead of you!" Moa shouted as several Golden Gun shots rang out, dropping Hive soldier after Hive soldier. Moa fired off a few more shots before dodging into Lus' bubble. Moa rose to look at those within the safety of Lus' Ward of Dawn. She recognized two of the three house leaders, Edelgard and Claude, along with Anette, Felix, Ashe, Ignatz, and Caspar. Moa cursed as she cloaked herself. Far too many students were missing.

"I'm gonna look for anyone else!" Moa exclaimed, rolling out of the bubble. "I'll leave a present!" She yelled as she leaped in the air and unleashed an ungodly amount of Shadowshots upon the Hive, tethering them with perfect timing. As Moa landed, she saw Lus unload a slug into a Knight, taking down it and many other Hive tethered.

She turned to rush into the burning monastery, hoping in her heart to see the students alive. As she made it inside, she saw Dimitri, Leonie, Ingrid, and Sylvain being chased by a Knight, which she quickly took down by unleashing far too many Golden Gun shots into it. She quickly yelled to grab the attention of the students, causing them to run over to her. She hastily began to escort them to Lus' bubble, which was already far past the point of uncomfortable with how many people are in it.

She saw Jose create a Well of Radiance behind Lus' bubble in order to provide some form of space for the new arrivals. Jose then flew over to Moa and miraculously found a way for all four students to cling to him. Moa confirmed Jose was already in the air above his Well before firing a few Golden Gun shots to thin the herd. Moa then charged back into the fiery anarchy that befell the monastery, searching for any more survivors.

Ginzo dodged a slam from the Knight before Shadestepping behind it and leaping up to its head slamming the barrel of his Golden Gun into it with his right hand while summoning an Arc Staff in his left. He stabbed the staff into the Knight's jugular before surging it with pure Arc Light, unleashing an inferno of Golden Gun shots simultaneously. This earned a roar of anguish from the Celebrant, which quickly threw him off. Ginzo smirked as he knew he got the last laugh. Before he was thrown off, he managed to toss several grenades into the gashes his staff and bullets created. As they detonated, the Knight screamed with fury and rage, rushing Ginzo. He dodged to the side again, this time throwing a flurry of fiery knives upon the Knight.

* * *

Anan unleashed a Celestial Fire upon the Pyramid-headed Wizard with his right hand, and a Handheld Supernova in his left, creating a squall of elements that exploded upon the witch. Without hesitating for a moment, Anan charged a Nova Bomb in his right hand, slamming it into the Celebrant and pushing it back. He then struck the chest of the Wizard with his lightning charged palm, before unleashing a Chaos Reach. As Anan prepared his next blow, the Wizard saw an opportunity and blasted Anan with the power of several Knights sending Anan flying into the quarters of the Knights of Seiros. Before too much damage could be done to Anan, Glaucia healed him and he rolled back to avoid the Wizard who appeared before him at an alarming rate. Anan waited for the Wizard to come closer before unleashing a Penumbral Blast upon it, along with a Duskfield Grenade to slow it. While the Witch was in entropy, Anan uppercutted the Wizard with his palm, unleashing a devastating beam of Arc light.

Leona charged her fist with Arc, making a claw with her hands before she plunged it into the Ogre's face. She then slammed the Ogre into the ground repeatedly before she threw the Ogre with ease, the sound of the Ogre landing briefly drowning out all other noise. Before the Ogre could rise, Leona soared through the air, slamming the Ogre with a Burning Maul. Before Leona could get another hit in, she felt the terrible hand of the Ogre grab her torso and crush her bones, earning a scream of anguish from her before she was slammed into the ground. As the Ogre rose to go look for its next victim trampling the body of Leona, it felt several heavy rounds being emptied into its weak spot, before a call of a bird was heard and a final round sent it reeling. Behind the Ogre stood Leona, renewed, and ready to continue the fight.

Byleth was currently searching for Jeralt, amidst the chaos that was currently happening. The Hive had managed to overrun the monastery, leaving destruction everywhere. Byleth had managed to find a Mausoleum of sorts, which was currently infested with Hive. He darted from shadow to shadow to avoid the tri-eyed monsters, and the skeletal creatures currently feasting on a knight's corpse.

Byleth scanned the room, seeing that nothing could be done for the victims who had already suffered a cruel fate in the mausoleum. He saw taller Hive with swords and smaller ones with weird contraptions desecrating the tombs of those buried here. He wanted to stop them and let the dead rest, but he knew it'd be futile. Sighing to himself, he began to turn out of the Mausoleum, when he came face to face with one of the smaller tri-eyed Hive. As it saw Byleth, it roared, alerting the others to the fresh meat that had newly arrived. Byleth swung his sword, which bounced as it collided with the chitinous armor of the soldier. Byleth quickly dropped the sword and ran deeper into the mausoleum, the entrance becoming blocked by the Hive chasing him. As he vaulted over a tomb, his left shoulder was struck by a purple bolt, burning his flesh and causing him to grunt in pain as he kept running. A skeletal Hive attempted to cut him off, but he managed to slow it by throwing his sword at it, which did nothing more than briefly stun the creature.

Byleth had made it to the far back of the room, which had a towering figure with a sword currently looting a tomb. Byleth saw it turn with a strange weapon that resembled a Relic. The thing roared with fury, before rushing Byleth with both its cleaver and strange sword. Byleth managed to narrowly roll back, avoiding a crushing slam by the beast. He heard the rushing skeletal creatures behind him scream as they drew closer, sandwiching him with the monster in front of him.

Byleth rewound time to move back to his original hiding spot. As expected, the smaller, skeletal creatures along with some of the smaller tri-eyed creatures rewound to their original positions. However, the being wielding the cleaver and the Relic was unchanged. It roared and began to rush Byleth, exposing his spot once again.

Suddenly an explosion-like sound was heard, accompanying a bolt of Orange that exploded the beast.

"Are you alright?"

Byleth turned to see Moa begin to fire a flaming contraption in her hand.

* * *

"Gonna be honest here...I don't know if we can do this…we're down really bad." Jose said as he guided a group of students to a safe zone outside the monastery.

"Yeah…we're getting screwed." Lus answered, feeling himself becoming winded from his nearly incessant use of Ward of Dawn since the battle began.

"You can say that again..." Ginzo muttered, rolling away and landing three shots on the Celebrant's head. Ginzo rolled once more into a smoke cloud, hoping that it would give him a quick moment to move to an advantageous position.

Suddenly with a terrifying roar, a dragon flew down from the sky in majestic glory, raining down freezing rays upon the Hive.

"Oh, so they got Ahamkara now?!"


	10. Chapter 10

"Chopstick?! Explain!" Jose shouted.

"I thought there weren't any! The scans didn't match!"

"Well, it might not be one because I'm wishing for the Hive to stop!" Lus yelled, reloading his shotgun to prepare for the next thinning of the horde.

"I'm gonna make a gun out of it..." Ginzo said as he spun his Falling Guillotine in the Celebrant.

The dragon soared through the skies, raining destruction upon the Hive below. As a few detachments of Hive changed their target to the dragon, it took heavy fire from the Hive and roared in pain and fury.

"Do we help it? Moa asked, looking upon it with some awe.

"It looks like its helping us, so I'd say so!" Lus said, slamming the ground with a lightning fist.

Jose flew overhead, before planting his Dawnblade into the ground, incinerating the Hive around him. He then summoned a Penumbral blast, freezing the remaining Hive of this wave. He rushed them and raised his staff to the skies, shattering them. In return, the dragon roared and unleashed a blinding light upon the Hive, devastating them.

"How much weirder can this world get?"

* * *

Anan looked upon his opponent, it somehow still alive despite Anan's attempts at eviscerating it. As he prepared to spike several Nova Bombs into it, it teleported away.

"Glaucia, where is it?!" Anan asked, running outside into the chaos to find it.

"On the rooftops! It's trying to sing a deathsong!" Glaucia responded, healing her Guardian.

Once Anan heard this, he blinked an unbelievable distance before rising up high enough to find the Wizard. As he threw a colossal Nova Bomb at it, the dragon attempted to attack the Wizard as well. However, the Wizard once again teleported away, causing the attacks to whiff.

"Dammit! We don't have time for this!" Anan muttered, scanning for his target. "Lus, are the students away yet?"

"We're getting the last of those in our bubble out right now!" Lus responded. Meanwhile Glaucia had been scanning for the Wizard.

"In the Chapel!" Glaucia yelled, causing Anan to unleash a Chaos Reach on the chapel.

However, the Wizard once again teleported, this time back onto the rooftop. The dragon from before spotted the witch and began to dive towards it, once again unleashing a freezing ray. The Wizard, however, barely flinched. Instead, as the dragon began to pull up, it conjured a portal and threw it on the dragon, causing it to disappear, before the Wizard disappeared as well.

"Wha...where did...did it just take it to the Ascendant Plane?" Glaucia asked, dumbfounded by the occurrence.

* * *

Moa unleashed several Golden Gun shots upon the Hive in the mausoleum she was in, according to Hornet. The Blue-haired professor was on the other side of the mausoleum, surrounded by Hive soldiers hungry for his flesh. Moa tossed a Swarm Grenade near his position to provide him some cover while Moa rushed to his aid.

Meanwhile the professor was being rushed by the skeletal creatures and the smaller footsoldiers. Briefly panicking, he turned to look at the possible Relic on the ground and rolled to grab it. Spinning around to face the mob, Byleth swung the blade at an incoming skeleton, causing the blade to glow and cut down the skeletal thing, much to Byleth's pleasant surprise. He then turned to slice another attempting to maul him, causing it too to perish. However, Byleth was still forced back by the greater numbers of the Hive. Byleth mentally cursed as he was forced to retreat and avoid blasts of purple energy coming from the footsoldiers. He rolled to a crouch behind a coffin. To his relief, he heard several bangs and screams of Hive before it went quiet.

"You okay?" Moa asked the professor, snaking around the corner to extend a hand to Byleth.

Saying nothing, the professor nodded and took Moa's hand, allowing him to rise to his feet.

"Are the students okay?" Byleth asked, worry spreading over his face.

"...Yeah." Moa said, trying to hide her hesitation. "Lus and Jose are helping a whole bunch get out right now. Which means we need you to do the same."

Byleth once again nodded, before he and Moa began to rush out of the mausoleum in order to hurry to safety.

"I want to help." Byleth said, looking at Moa with a serious expression on his face.

"The Hive are really strong. Just let us handle it."

"But I-"

"Listen, professor…" Moa started as her and the professor ran up the stairs that led out of the Mausoleum. "Even with your new weapon, It'd be hard to continuously fight for as long as the Hive can. Us Guardians are used to dealing with the Hive."

Byleth had no choice but to nod in acknowledgment of the points she had made. Even with Byleth's godlike power, some of the Hive were seemingly immune to it. She was right.

"However, it seems like it's gonna be inevitable that you'll have to fight, even if it's not here. Let's get out of here, and then we'll talk." Moa said, as the two finally made it outside.

* * *

"This thing is strong as hell!"

Ginzo grunted as he reflected blasts of energy back at the Celebrant with his Arc Staff. Ginzo had already known that its objective was to stall him until the Hive took the monastery. But at the same time, he couldn't let something as powerful as the Celebrant run rampant. He rolled as he unloaded a Golden Gun into the Celebrant. The Celebrant was staggered and reeled from the hits. Ginzo smirked.

It was time for this thing to die.

"I believe in you Gin!" Fortune called, cheering on her Guardian.

He rushed the towering Knight with his Falling Guillotine, slashing and rolling around its legs before he unleashed his heavy attack on the Knight. Before he could though, the Knight disappeared in a Green mist like before.

"Uhh...Fortune, where'd it go?" Ginzo asked, looking around in an almost comical manner.

"I think to the Ascendant Plane...whoops…"

"Oh boy...Anan's gonna kill me…"

"I'd have to kill myself too." Anan said, dropping down from the rooftops to Ginzo location in the middle of the Monastery. "The Wizard took the dragon to the Ascendant Plane."

"Damn…" Ginzo said, eyes widening. He switched to comms to update the team.

"Alright y'all...so the Celebrant and Wizard just took the dragon to the Ascendant Plane. Leona, is the Ogre still up for you?"

"It just left." Leona said. "I don't know if that was their main goal, but I'm not a fan of the fact that the Hive have another dragon on their side. In any case, I'm not seeing any more Hive drop in, but the place is trashed. Is it even worth defending at this point?"

"I'd wager not." Anan replied. "Our next best move would be to clear out the remaining Hive and look for survivors. I'm not sure how fast they can rebuild here, but this place has suffered far worse than an average siege."

Almost as if to emphasize his words, parts of the main hall began to collapse as Anan and Ginzo dashed outside. To say the monastery was in ruins would be fitting. Burning wood, smoldering rubble, and the occasional body were strewn about the area. Thick smoke plumes rose from the ground to block the sun's rays. Some rooftops had caved in, particularly those covering what Anan and Ginzo assumed to be classrooms. Many other buildings and even what looked to be stalls in the marketplace were in flames, only adding to the atmosphere of chaos. Some were basically completely collapsed. The sound of structures crumbling along with the crackles and murmurs of fire filled the area. Some remaining Ogres slammed the ground, shaking the brittle buildings to their core. Other Hive were seemingly trying to attack and destroy the buildings, an unusual sight.

The monastery truly was in ruins.

"You got a point." Ginzo added.

Anan blinked into the air in order to begin an aerial bombardment on the Hive.

"Just another day for Tengoku…"

* * *

"Huh...well this is a lot worse than when I went down." Moa said as her and Byleth darted away from the mausoleum entrance.

"The monastery…" Byleth trailed off, the sadness in his voice matching his expression as he peered at the ruins.

"Yeah...I'm sorry we weren't able to defend-…" Moa attempted before Byleth cut her off.

"It's not your fault." Byleth said, shaking his head. "From what I saw, the Hive were far more powerful than anything here."

Moa could only nod, but she still felt shame for seeing the monastery in such a ruined state. Such a beautiful place, only to be ransacked by the Hive. It reminded her of the City, on a much smaller scale. She never saw it before the Cabal attacked, but she had always assumed it was bigger and more prosperous than the city now.

"That sword you have...is it a Relic?" Moa asked, attempting to somewhat change the subject.

"I think so...it glows like one." Byleth replied, unsure about his new weapon himself.

Moa's train of thought was interrupted as Hornet alerted her to a human underneath a pile of rubble near her. She turned to look at the rubble tomb, before rushing over to lift a massive piece of structure away. It revealed a woman with short indigo hair who wore a teal jacket, which was unfortunately riddled with tears and cuts. The woman herself appeared to have suffered some form of head trauma, along with some burns all over her body. After Hornet assured Moa that she was alive, Moa moved away the rest of the rubble covering her appendages before moving the woman to her back.

"You recognize her?" Moa asked Byleth, who was not far away looking to see if there was anyone else trapped under rubble.

"She's a Knight of Seiros. Shamir, I believe. Will she be alright?"

"Her wounds definitely hurt, but she'll recover." Hornet said materializing. Find anyone else yet?"

"No…" Byleth returned. "I hope they got out…"

"Me too." Moa replied. "This'll be a little hard for you to understand, but Hornet's not picking up anyone else here. We should try to find our way out of here."

"What do you mean?" Byleth asked, visibly confused by Moa's statement.

"Well, I can...detect things and people. And well...there's no one else around here that's alive. So...yeah."

Byleth was somewhat surprised by this, but somewhat understood as well.

"I see..."

Byleth could only hope in his heart that all his students made it out alive.

* * *

Lus and Jose had left the monastery in order to pursue a group of Hive attempting to chase the refugees, as well as to look for any students that needed help.

"So…" Jose started over comms "On a scale of one to ten, how screwed are we?"

"I'd say an eight." Leona replied. "The students are scattered, the Hive have a dragon, who knows what the Vex are doing, we have no access to our vault, sparrows, ships, or other gear...dammit! What are we gonna do without access to our gear?"

"We are pretty screwed…" Lus agreed.

"Find any survivors?" Moa asked, looking around herself.

"Nada...I'm hoping that means that most of them got out." Leona said, audibly distressed.

The chilling ambiance of the forest was broken by the two Guardians firing upon a group of Hive feasting on a knight's body. The group was defeated before they could even put up a fight, thanks to the trademark weapons of Lus and Jose.

"My hatred of the Hive continues to grow..." Lus said, inspecting the body of the fallen Knight of Seiros.

"I think that goes for everyone." Jose replied.

Suddenly screams were heard from deeper in the forest.

"Guys!" Cinnamon frantically shouted, appearing. "I'm picking up a number of Hive attempting to attack a group of students."

"Let's go." Lus said, causing him and Jose to run after the marker Cinnamon left.

* * *

"Still no response…"

Zavala stood staring into the blue screen of information on his desk. Fireteams Noctis and Tengoku were both still missing. Ginzo had alerted him that they were going to enter into a portal, but Zavala had assumed they'd return by now. Rumors were beginning to fly through the City about their disappearance. Many in the City and the Tower were worried about their whereabouts. Some even assumed they had been K.I.A'd, though Zavala knew in his heart that the notion of two of the most powerful Fireteams ever dying was nearly impossible.

Zavala sighed in frustration. He was beginning to miss them all.

He missed the effectiveness of Moa.

Seeing Jose's undefeated streak continue in the Crucible.

The insurmountable force of Lus.

The expertise of Anan.

The sheer tenacity of Leona.

And while he may not admit it aloud, Ginzo's terrible jokes.

There was nothing he could do now but await the return of the missing Fireteams. With the Darkness at their doorstep, he prayed to the Traveler that their return would be sooner rather than later. But this still left Zavala with several questions.

What could be so important that it required all of their attention? And was it worth leaving their home?

* * *

"Man...that was wild."

Ginzo sighed as he, Leona, Moa, Anan, and a Blue-haired professor walked through the forest around the monastery, moving towards human signals picked up by Ori. They had failed to find any more living humans in the monastery, or at least any who could be saved in time, save for an Indigo-haired woman, whom Moa was carrying. So they decided to head North towards Fhirdiad, the capital of the Kingdom of Faerghus. The monastery behind them was still smoldering and crumbling down, most likely due to the bombardment by the Guardians and Hive. The three main targets they had escaped to the Ascendant Plane, worsening their situation.

"So how are we gonna get to the Ascendant Plane?" Ginzo asked, as their group left the lighter forest and entered a denser one.

"The easiest way to do that would be to kill an Ascendant Hive and use its essence." Anan said as his group began to march away from the monastery.

"Easy enough." Ginzo added. "What about the students? There's six of us. We can't defend them all. Not to mention three whole nations."

A significant period of silence passed as the two fireteams contemplated their situation.

"You guys wouldn't have happened to bring extra weapons, right?" Jose asked, appearing on comms while firing Telesto bolts into a Hive Knight on his end.

"Nope!" Ginzo said a little too nonchalantly. "I mean, why don't we just give some of the good ones some guns and call it a day? I mean like, they can't resurrect like us, but that should buy us enough time to get back home and kill the Vex and Hive on our end."

"We don't really have a better option. Although it did seem as if the Relics were doing damage to the Vex, and I assume by association, the Hive." Lus replied as he and Jose ascended a short hill.

"Well, we better find them quick then." Lus added.

"Ayo, crazy thought, what if the Relics are paracausal? Or at least, acausal. I mean, we have no proof or anything like that, but they can cut through the Vex and Hive right?" Ginzo asked.

"Anything with enough firepower can do that, but that might actually be plausible…" Jose replied. "Chopstick, did the scans give you any indication of that?"

"Looking back on it now…" Chopstick began. "They share some aspects of acausality...I think? It's so foreign I can't be sure."

"Hey, we're all lost here. Your guess is as good as ours." Moa replied.

This sparked a thought in Hornet, causing her to appear to the Professor

"Professor, could you show me that sword?" Hornet said.

"Sure." Byleth said, his face unchanging as he held the sword out in his arms.

Hornet scanned the sword intricately, making sure to garner as much information as possible about it.

"Thank you!" Hornet said, returning to Moa. She switched to comms, and relayed her findings to the team.

"So…the Blue-haired professor's new sword is acausal. It's strange, though. For some reason, I'm getting the same reading from, well, the professor himself."

"Interesting…" Anan replied.

"So, like, dude's acausal as well?" Ginzo asked.

"Maybe." Hornet answered. "But how? And what does that mean?"

* * *

Ginzo and Leona shut off their comms as they changed course to meet at the chosen location. However, Leona stopped in her tracks as she felt a dark presence near her. It was fairly weak compared to what she was used to, but she felt it nonetheless. She switched back to private comms.

"You feel that?" She asked her roguish comrade.

"Sure do." Ginzo replied, stopping in his tracks as well.

Leona paused, motioning for the others besides Ginzo to move on. She then turned to peer into the treeline.

"So are you gonna hide like a coward or are you gonna face us?" She asked the forest.

Nothing but the sounds of nature passed. Leona began to charge her fist with Arc energy and turned to a nearby bush formation.

"Well, if you won't come out, I'll force you out…" She stated, marching menacingly to the bush. Suddenly a man with long Black hair emerged from bushes in the forest. He was donned in clothing that would make one assume he held a high position, in an oddly pristine state.

"Wait! Forgive me! Oh knights! Thank the Goddess…my apologies, my intentions were not to give you fear. I was hiding because I did not know if you were hostile or not. I heard what happened to the monastery. I'm looking for my niece, Edelgard. Have you seen her? Is she safe?"

"We did indeed. What is your name?" Leona asked, her suspicions spiking.

"Do you not recognize me? I...thought I was well known. Perhaps you are new knights. I am Lord Volkhard von Arundel. I hail from the Adrestian Empire. What of you and your comrade?"

"Hmm…" Leona began. "You said you heard about what happened to the monastery? From who?"

"Ah, a messenger of mine sent word to me."

"Word travels fast, I see."

"Indeed it does. With an event as big as Garreg-Mach falling, word would be sure to spread like wildfire." Volkhard paused, before sighing. "Excuse me if I am overstepping my boundaries, but I do not recognize your armor. Would it be correct to assume you do not hail from here?"

"You could say that." Leona said. "Say, I'd assume a lord of a nation would be a little more...protected. Is there any reason you're alone?"

"That's…" Volkhard began, trying to explain himself.

Leona, not wanting to dance around the subject any longer, raised her Hawkmoon and placed Volkhard between its sights. "Talk."

"It seems it doesn't matter then." Volkhard began with a sigh. A Purple blip flashed before a different individual was seen, revealing a pale-skinned White-haired individual clad in Black armor.

"I'm amused." The figure spoke. "You figured me out."

"Yeah, though your defense was very weak, so it wasn't hard. Y'know they got books for that stuff right? It's stuff like, how to tell a lie and-" Ginzo said, smirking.

"Silence." The figure scoffed. "You are not from Fodlan. I do not think you are even from this world. Where do you come from?"

"We have no reason to tell you that." Leona replied, not being intimidated by the figure.

"Frustrating." The figure spoke, narrowing their eyebrows. "Why are you helping the Church? Do you know what they've done?"

"Again, we have no reason to tell you that. Maybe if you wanted answers you shouldn't have tried to sneak up and lie to us."

"The Church of Seiros is not what it seems. That woman, Rhea, is-"

"Yeah, yeah whatever sharkboy." Ginzo said, waving away the individual's monologue. "You gonna sell us some drugs or what?"

"Hmph. It seems you are not willing to be reasoned with." The figure growled, his anger growing.

"Ok cool. So flaming pistol or lightning shish kebab. Which one do you want?"

"I am offering you the truth about the Church. Why would you not take it?"

"Oh seriously? What is it?" Ginzo said, chuckling.

The figure paused before sighing and speaking. "They are corrupt. That cursed woman, Rhea, is Seiros herself. That is only a mere morsel of the reality. I would advise that you do not follow the Church any longer, lest you be crushed beneath our heels. However, I do wish to offer you an...alliance. One that may be able to send you back to your home."

"Thanks for the spoilers sharkie! Unfortunately, we already got our own plan for getting home, so no thanks. So, what do you want?"

"You fools!" Volkhard growled, his anger bubbling over. "You would continue to believe the lies of that wretched woman?"

"We're not believing anything. We're just trying to save people." Leona said, stepping forward.

"Hmph. Very well. If you choose to be a fool, I shall simply revel in pleasure when the Church turns its back on y-!"

BANG

The figure fell to the ground, clutching its hand which had a massive hole in it. Across from them, Leona aimed her Hawkmoon at the figure. As Leona attempted to move forward and set the sights of her weapon to Volkhard's head, they disappeared in a Purple blip.

"Shit! I meant to hit his head!" Leona growled.

"Yeah, well we all make mistakes." Ginzo said, putting his hands behind his head.

With a sigh, Leona turned and reloaded her Hawkmoon. "You think he was telling the truth?"

"Well...based on my genius-level street intellect, he didn't seem like he was lying. I'm guessin' Ori already relayed the feed to the others?"

"That would be factual." Ori stated.

"Well, we'll have to find out more either way, but it's good to know our suspicions aren't necessarily unfounded." Leona said, holstering her Hawkmoon.

Ginzo sighed as he began walking to the meeting point once again. The sun in the sky was falling, the sky a mix of Orange, Blue, and Pink. Thick plumes of smoke rose from the Monastery and corrupted the sky, reflecting a deep Orange color.

"You ever feel like our lives never stop, and it's always some sort of monster of the week or how much can go wrong type situation? Like no matter what we do things seem to go terribly until the very end?" Ginzo asked, hoping to change subjects briefly.

"Ginzo...are you on Ether again?" Leona questioned in return.

"Ohh…." Ginzo began, his voice thick with sarcasm. "Because anytime I have a remotely intelligent thought I must be on Ether."

Hey everyone! Sorry this chapter took so long to get out! I hope you're all doing fantastic! And also sorry for messing up the descriptions of Leona and Anan. I now know to double-check I have the right version of the story to copy and paste, lol. Anyways, as always I hope you enjoyed! Any favorites, follows, or re

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Sorry this chapter took so long to get out! I hope you're all doing fantastic! And also sorry for messing up the descriptions of Leona and Anan. I now know to double-check I have the right version of the story to copy and paste, lol. Anyways, as always I hope you enjoyed! Any favorites, follows, or reviews are appreciated. See ya!


	13. Chapter 13

The 4 Guardians, the Professor, and an unconscious Shamir had been walking for quite some time. Moa looked at Byleth, who had worry plaguing his face. Even though Moa never was a teacher or anything like it, she still felt for the Professor and his concern for his students. Suddenly, rustling occurred in the bushes, causing the group to be alarmed. When Ori and Hornet eliminated the fact that it was Hive or Vex, they saw the Gray hair of Ashe, they relaxed and told the Professor to be at ease.

"Ashe, it's the professor. You can come out." spoke Byleth, slowly approaching the head of gray.

Almost comically, the aptly named student rose from the shrubbery, warily peeking out. Once he confirmed it was indeed the Guardians, he sighed of relief, lowering his bow.

"Ah, Guardians! Professor! I'm so glad to see that you're alright!"

"The same to you." The professor smiled.

"Are you alone?" Moa asked, approaching the boy before patting the student on the head.

"No, actually. I managed to find Claude, Felix, and a couple of others. We're hiding out not far from here. I was just keeping watch."

Moa sighed before patting his shoulder. "I admire your bravery, but you shouldn't stray too far from everyone else. That's very dangerous, especially now that there are enemies beyond your capabilities on the loose...In any case, Good looking out. Can you lead us to the students?"

"Right, I'm sorry," Ashe said, turning and motioning for the group to follow him. "Everyone else is this way."

"So, who's in your group?" Hornet asked, hovering over Moa as they followed behind the young archer.

"Claude, Felix, Mercedes, Lysithea, and Caspar. When everyone was fleeing, the crowds mixed a lot of groups up...I hope the others are alright…"

"Yeah…" Byleth nodded.

Ashe continued to walk through the dense forest on a dirt path before he hung a left and led the group to a small clearing with felled logs being used as seats for the students there. The group saw Felix with his arms crossed leaning against the tree, Claude laying down on a log, and Mercedes tending to wounds on Caspar and Lysithea.

"Everyone! I brought Professor Byleth as well as the Guardians!" Ashe said somewhat brightly in an attempt to raise the group's spirits.

"Not surprised," Claude remarked with a smirk. "I knew they'd survive."

"Is everyone alright?" Byleth asked, walking to meet his students.

"Caspar and Lysithea had a few small injuries, but they'll be fine." Claude began, rising from his reclination. "The Hive are pretty gnarly, huh?" Claude said, scratching his head.

"That's an understatement." Moa chuckled.

"They're such disgusting...and...vile creatures. They certainly are a cause of great fear." Lysithea said, shaking a little.

"Indeed." spoke Felix gruffly. "I'll need to figure out a way to exploit their weaknesses. They certainly are a worthy challenge."

"I don't think that's a good idea, man..." Ginzo remarked before hopping on a felled log.

Meanwhile, Leona sighed as she looked at the sky darkening. Walking to Fhirdiad wasn't that big of a deal to her, but the fact that they now have to guard students, who were most likely very tired, not to mention utterly helpless against the Hive and Vex, changed things. Even further, unlike Guardians, they didn't have Ghosts to get rid of the exhaustion they had, so they would be delayed even further.

"You all should rest up," Leona started, approaching the group. "Today was crazy, and tomorrow we'll be heading to Fhirdiad to meet the other Guardians."

"Heh, don't have to tell me twice. Claude said, relaxing against a log.

"We should get a fire going." Mercedes softly remarked. "Either that or we should huddle to keep warm."

"I can handle that." Anan said, flaring up his body with Solar light, generating heat to keep the lightless warm.

"Wow...I guess I should've expected you could do something like this." Claude chuckled.

"You just get cooler by the minute!" Caspar eagerly remarked, laying down to rest. "Ah, yeah! It's super toasty!"

Leona chuckled as Moa sat on a log near her, watching the students lay to rest in different positions. In a way, it reminded her of the kids back at the orphanage.

The professor did not make an attempt to rest, instead, he simply stood awake. However, it wouldn't take a detective to see the exhaustion he felt.

"You can rest, professor." Hornet said, speaking Moa's thoughts. "We're...used to having to keep watch for a long while, so one night is nothing to us."

Byleth hesitantly nodded, and relaxed against the same log that Claude was sleeping on. The professor smiled at the Guardians before shutting his eyes.

As the Fodlan natives slumbered away, Ginzo and Anan bantered away on comms, while Leona, Moa, and their Ghosts contemplated their situation.

It seemed the Guardians all knew they had to return home. They were already gone for far too long. But at the same time, were they so willing to allow the Hive and Vex to raze this world? For the time being, they were stuck permanently. But once they had a way back, what would happen to this world?

* * *

Dimitri, Dedue, Sylvain, Ferdinand, and Ignatz were all wandering the forest in search of a shelter for the night. As the boys sluggishly trudged their way through the forest, Ignatz pointed out a nearby cave entrance, which looked dark and ominous but was better than nothing in their current state.

"How shameful...to have nothing but the cold floor of a cave as my bed…" Ferdinand trailed off as the boys trudged into the cave.

"It's not all that bad…" Sylvain began. "We could be sleeping in mud or something."

"Agreed." Dimitri nodded. "I'm just glad we get to rest at all…"

The boyband sat in the cave, the moonlight above them just barely giving enough light to see. All of them wore exhausted expressions on their faces. The cave smelled like a wet dog. On the floor were several puddles in indents. At the very least, it was something.

To them, they had escaped with their lives from some of the darkest beings they had seen. Not to mention the fact that Garreg-Mach had fallen. The experience shook all of them to their core, bringing a new fear into their hearts.

"It's been a pretty crazy day, huh?" Sylvain chuckled in an attempt to break the silence.

"Yes, it has." Ignatz shakily agreed. "The Hive were so...scary! I hope the Guardians are alright…"

"I'm sure they are! They're stronger than anyone in Fodlan. Not to mention they're used to dealing with them." Sylvain replied, a slight smile appearing on his face.

Ferdinand hesitantly laid his head back against the cave wall, his face wrinkling in disgust as he felt his hand touch a puddle on the food. "Hopefully word has spread about these vile creatures. The Empire should assemble an army at once to put a stop to these invasions!"

"I'm not too sure they'd be able to handle them if I'm being honest…"

After much protest from Dedue, Dimitri had risen to take the first watch of the night. Dimitri stood at the entrance of the cave, surveying the area for anything suspicious. With the result of him seeing nothing of note, he turned his gaze to the sky for a brief moment and thought to himself. He hoped that the Guardians would be able to find a way to save the day. He knew that they were strong, but when he gazed upon the Hive for the first time, it felt like staring into the eyes of death. And it seemed like the Guardians had no trouble facing death. Of course, any time his class went on missions, the threat of death was very real, but to him, it seemed like such a distant probability with the Knights of Seiros and the Professor assisting them.

Suddenly Dimitri heard a twig snap from his right. Dimitri whipped around before taking a stance with his spear, backing into the cave and calling out into the night.

"Identify yourself!" He shouted, rousing the other boys who warily began to stand.

"It's Lus and Jose. You can ease up, for now, Dimitri."

Dimitri sighed with relief before smiling and lowering his weapon. He knew they would survive. As the two Guardians moved into the moonlight making them more visible, Dimitri walked to greet them.

"Lus! Jose! I'm beyond glad to see that you survived!" Dimitri spoke, audibly relieved.

"The same to you all." Lus nodded. "How are you all holding up?"

"We're all still shaken up, but we're doing our best…"

"That's really good, given the situation you guys went through…" Jose sighed, scratching his nape.

Lus turned to look at the dark cave entrance, of which the moonlight was illuminating enough to make out the rest of the boyband with the naked eye.

"You all found shelter. That's a smart move." Lus commended. "We can take watch from here. Get yourself some rest, Dimitri."

"Are you sure? You deserve a break after the relentless combat you endured. I just began my watch, so I'm fine with staying up for longer."

"We insist." Lus and Jose said in unison.

"Alright then," Dimitri smiled. "But please, do not hesitate to wake us if you ever need to swap."

"Yeah…" Jose trailed off, almost chuckling.

As the blond prince retreated to the darkness of the cave, Lus planted a weakened Hammer of Sol in the cave, increasing the relative comfort of the boys. Lus walked to the cave entrance and leaned against it, adjacent to a sitting Jose.

"Well...this is crazy." Jose sighed, staring at the moon. It was truly an oddity to see it uncracked.

"Yep. I just hope things haven't gone completely bad for The City." Lus replied, doing the same.

"So what's the plan? We fight here until we kill the Hive and Vex leadership?" Jose asked, turning his head to Lus.

"There's no guarantee that'll bring us back to our world…" Lus reluctantly added.

"Well, I don't like the sound of us being stuck here forever."

"Neither do I, but I'm just being honest here."

A period of silence passed before anything was said again. Suddenly Cinnamon appeared, hovering over Lus shoulder.

"I've been thinking about the Vex, and I think I have a theory that could work. It might not be able to get us back, but it may allow us to communicate with the Vanguard."

"Well? Out with it." Lus spoke.

"If the Vex network is truly connected, there might be a way for us to leave a message in the network in hopes that someone from our world will see it."

"Well, that's not a terrible idea" Chopstick replied. "But how do we get them to see it?"

"Well…" Lus began, thinking aloud. "I think Osiris is out, seeing as he's basically grounded."

"There aren't many people who are frequent users of the Vex network are there?" Chopstick asked rhetorically.

The Guardians and their Ghosts all thought about a way to set their plan in motion. Suddenly, Jose had an idea, albeit a risky one.

"What if we get them, like, really pissed off? That way they appear in massive numbers. At least then someone is bound to check it out."

"Yeah, but it has to be something loud enough to get other people's attention…"

"Clovis?" Chopstick suggested. "He's bound to beg anyone to help him. Plus, he deserves it after the things he's done."

"He'll be pretty pissed off, but I like it." Lus smugly added. "So, any idea on where's the nearest place we can send this message?"

"Well…" Chopstick began. "I scanned and picked up a Vex conflux not too far north from here. It's a little out of the way from Fhirdiad, though."

"We can probably stop on the way there and send the message. It'll slow us down, but there's no shame in being fashionably late."

"I mean, if we're walking, that's probably way more than fashionably late…" Jose poked.

"And there are many levels of fashionably late." Lus retorted, gesturing with his hands.

* * *

Ginzo walked through the forest, Cloudstrike in hand as he patrolled a path to Fhirdiad that Fortune had marked. He had left the camp under the guise of him patrolling around, but the main reason is that he was bored. Ginzo turned to the stars as he walked a path only illuminated by the light of Fortune.

"Do you think the Cabal and Fallen are gonna show up?" Fortune asked her Guardian in an almost innocent voice.

"Nah. They ain't got the technology to do that. At least not the last time I checked." Ginzo replied, looking around the forest."

"That's good. I don't think this place would be able to handle all four."

"Well, I ain't sure they can handle even one."

"Yeah…" Fortune replied, saddened. "Hey...wait a minute, there are people up ahead. We should go check it out!"

"Wait, are they like, bad people or good people?" Ginzo asked, stopping and turning to his ghost.

"I don't know, I just picked them up."

"And you leave it up to me to find out. Of course."

Ginzo turned right, heading deeper into the forest as he crouched low to the ground. Suddenly, he felt the same faint dark presence as he did before. Ginzo rolled behind a tree stump, cloaking himself before sneaking closer to the two targets Fortune pinged. Fortune shut off her flashlight and disappeared, adding to the stealthiness of Ginzo. As he moved close enough, he recognized Thales from before, but a masked figure in heavy Red armor also caught his sight. The two were standing in a clearing, causing the moonlight to illuminate the ground and themselves.

"Well look at that," Ginzo said over comms to Fortune. "Sharkboy got himself a friend."

"Should we do something?" Fortune asked, unsure of the current situation.

"Nah, nah, it's fine. If things go wrong we just put a bullet in both their heads and call it a night."

"Ooh!" Fortune yelped. "They're talking! Shh!"

The figure in the Crimson armor finally stepped forward to speak. Its voice came out layered and distorted.

"You have failed, I see."

"I do not wish to hear your scrutinization." Thales retorted. "I shall admit, however, these 'Guardians' are more formidable than I expected. Have you identified a weakness?"

"No." The Crimson figure spoke, unmoving. "Even if I were to, it may still be beyond our understanding and power."

"I wouldn't be certain." Thales began with a smirk, conjuring Green and Black fire in his hand. Fortune panicked over comms to her Guardian.

"That's Hive magic! How did they...Oh no...this is bad."

"You don't say…" Ginzo returned, not taking his eyes off the situation.

Thales wickedly smiled as he stared into the Green flame. "With this new power, I have doubts that the Goddess herself could stop us."

"I would advise you not to underestimate the Guardians. I believe we have not yet seen the full extent of their abilities." The Flame Emperor spoke, motioning towards the wound in Thales' hand.

"Hmph. In any case, this new power has allowed me to create far more...advanced experiments. I must admit, I am excited to see how the Guardians fare. In time, I shall share this power with you." Thales stated.

"Unlike you, I do not have such fanaticism over power. I do not wish to create sickening experiments."

"Hmph. We shall see if you hold the same views in time." Thales said, before teleporting away.

The figure donned in Crimson armor sighed, before another figure, this one with black hair and donned in a school uniform suddenly warped in, bowing before the armored figure.

"We should return immediately, Flame Emperor."

"Indeed." The figure now known as the Flame Emperor spoke before both teleported away, leaving Ginzo and Fortune in silence. Ginzo finally rose out of the bushes, scratching his head.

"Oh shiznit…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo everyone! Sorry for the mega-late and short chapter! I've been dealing with a bunch of writer's block, but I think I've gotten past it for now. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and as always any feedback is appreciated. Later!


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